PROBLEM
The Frustration of Bedtime Routines
Bedtime is a special time for parents to spend quality time with their children. However, these precious moments can often be overlooked or rushed, leaving both parents and children feeling disconnected and frustrated. Our main focus is how we can better foster mindfulness and connection within families during the bedtime routine.
27%
Parents describe getting their child to bed as difficult
90%
Parents report consistency each night is important
DESIGN CHALLENGE
SOLUTION
Named after the Japanese word for “star,” Hoshi Bear is an interactive bear companion that gradually drifts to sleep as the children complete the bedtime routine.
Each token shape comes with a sticker sheet with different bedtime routine tasks. Parents are able to customize each token based on their unique bedtime routine with their children. Some tokens are left blank for further customization.
Children insert tokens after they finish the task with the corresponding icon on them. After each token is inserted, a soft tune will play, as the bear grows more tired providing positive reinforcement and moving the routine along smoothly.
Tokens fall into and are stored in a lockable drawer. This way, parents can ensure that their children won't have access to the token for potential cheating!
Process
Understanding Bedtime Better
As parenting is an experience we are all largely unfamiliar with, we wanted to gather as much information as possible on the bedtime routine and truly understand this experience from the parents’ perspectives.
We gathered bedtime experiences of children aged between 3 and 9 through interviews, directed storytelling, and artifact analysis of 6 families.
Photos of the bedroom space provided by parents
Through our discussions, we started deciphering our data to identify recurring patterns among the nocturnal rituals of households via affinity diagrams and user experience maps.
User journey mapping was also used to identify touch points our product could have with families. We agreed that the "transition to bedtime" stage should be our area of focus, as that is when children generally begin to lose motivation and offer the most resistance that carries throughout the bedtime routine.
My research led me to several insights that guided my direction and design principles:
The Illusion of Independence
Some children who feel that they are given autonomy throughout the routine are less likely to offer resistance because they don’t feel forced to go to bed. This allows them to feel in control of the routine, creating a calmer bedtime experience.
The Magic of Routine
Consistency helps children follow the bedtime routine and helps parents stay present, as there is comfort in knowing what to expect each night. Inconsistencies cause children to become more irritable and upset as they no longer feel they have control of the process
Balancing Self-Care and Parental Presence
Parents want to have a healthy balance between their time alone while still remaining actively present for their child during bedtime routines. This mindful balance not only enhances the parent’s mental wellbeing but also positively influences their child’s behavior during bedtime.
A Bedtime Bonding
Having a parent be emotionally present helps make bedtime easier and more intimate, as children feel more emotionally secure and safe. Children are able to feel their parent’s genuine intention to spend time with them, tending to become less irritable during the bedtime routine.
My research led me to believe that
Providing children with parental presence and a feeling of satisfaction after completing each step of the routine would help create a smoother bedtime experience for both the parents and children.
How might we foster the connection between parents and children?
How might we help develop or maintain consistency in the process?
How might we allow mindfulness during bedtime for parents?
DESIGN
Ideating Different Concepts
We began by brainstorming 60 initial concepts before downsizing to 3 potentially viable concepts to explore further. We were looking for ideas that resonated with our design challenge and principles.
60 Ideas Critique
An interactive companion that gradually drifts to sleep as children complete their bedtime routine. Both parents and children have their own tokens, allowing them to complete the routine together.
Presenting a visual representation of the sleeping bear strongly enforces the idea that it is bedtime, preparing children for a good night’s sleep.
A star shaped lamp that signals bedtime when all the points of the star fall off. To restore the glowing star, the child will complete the bedtime routine by reattaching the points with their parents throughout the routine.
Parents can control when the device resets and view statistics about their routine with the corresponding app.
Each book illustrates Book Bunny mastering a certain step in the bedtime routine, allowing children to experience a consistent bedtime routine alongside a friend.
Reading these stories together promotes family connection and engages the children’s imagination, while gradually teaching them to go to bed independently.
USER TESTING & ITERATION
Participatory Design for Families
Before starting high fidelity prototyping, we created a Participatory Design Workshop with 2 families hosting three activities to better understand how we can develop our product to truly make bedtime easier and a special experience.
Storyboarding our concept for feedback
To get the children to start thinking about bedtime, we had them find their three favorite nighttime items and ask why they chose the items and how the items made them feel.
Children chose new items or toys because they hold a novelty that cause the child to be attached to it for the first few days.
We will include a reward system that provides children with positive reinforcement after they complete a certain amount of bedtime routines will help them engage with our product long term.
Using paper and marker, we had the children and parents draw their favorite bedtime item. We wanted to understand why these items were being chosen to incorporate these traits into our product.
Children chose items that have been a staple in the routine since they were young because there's a sense of comfort.
Our design will include customizable options that fit each child’s specific needs and soft textures, or soothing sounds to help children feel secure and comforted at nighttime.
We had parents ask their child to put a chip (or an item that resembled a chip) in a jar/cup after completing each step of their bedtime routine. We wanted to know how the child reacted to this new addition to their routine, and how the parents felt towards this experience.
Parents and children will have their own tokens to encourage parent involvement and teamwork for finishing each task of the routine.
Our tokens will focus on tangibility and interactivity. It will be large and thick, preventing choking while creating a more enjoyable experience for the kids.
From our workshop,
We began to build our design, lasercutting wood for our bear's bed, sewing the bear, and creating our own tokens.
FINAL DESIGN
The Final Prototype
Named after the Japanese word for “star,” Hoshi Bear is an interactive bear companion that gradually drifts to sleep as the children complete the bedtime routine. Children insert tokens after they finish the task with the corresponding icon on them.
After each token is inserted, a soft tune will play, as the bear grows more tired providing positive reinforcement and moving the routine along smoothly. Finally, when the last token is placed, the child will tuck in the bear as they are tucked into bed.
REFLECTIONS
Impact and Learnings
We had families implement our product for a short period of time, and here's what some of them had to say:
The most important lesson I learned was
Always keep the user in mind when designing every aspect of the product.
From the bear's aesthetic appearance to the bed's functionality, every design decision needed to be backed up by the user—the parents and the children.
Early on in our project, we found ourselves straying away from our user’s needs because we originally had wanted to design a mobile app. We had to take a step back and reevaluate, as a digital product would take away from our goal to foster mindfulness and connection.
One of our biggest challenge we faced throughout the project was learning how to make design decisions collaboratively. Our design truly began to flourish once we stayed open-minded and left the possibilities up to our imaginations.
