Avatar Activity
Evolving a high-engagement self-expression experience for young learners through personalization, research, and child-centered design.
A leading EdTech platform with millions of users
Product Owner & Game Designer
Retention · Child-Facing
Web · Mobile
This case study has been anonymized to protect proprietary information. Original production screens and visual assets cannot be shared. Any UI shown here has been recreated for demonstration purposes and does not represent the final shipped product.
01
The Challenge
Avatar Activity was one of the platform's highest-engagement experiences. As part of a major product evolution, the team needed to modernize the experience while preserving what children already loved about it.
The opportunity was bigger than a visual redesign. The feature needed to strengthen children's emotional connection with the platform through personalization, creativity, and self-expression, while creating a scalable foundation for future product experiences.
Business
Support long-term engagement and retention by evolving one of the platform's most popular experiences.
Kids
Help children feel represented through a character they could personalize, identify with, and revisit.
Product
Create a personalization system that was intuitive for very young users and scalable across future experiences.
Interaction
Encourage creativity without overwhelming children or relying on interaction patterns that were too complex.
02
My Role
I led Avatar Activity from concept through implementation as Product Owner & Game Designer, translating stakeholder goals into a scalable product experience.
Product Strategy
Gathered stakeholder requirements, participated in PI Planning, helped define the roadmap, and prioritized work across two-week Agile sprints.
Experience Design
Defined the product experience and interaction model, creating user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and foundational UI.
Research
Partnered with the Research team to define hypotheses, observe moderated playtests, and translate findings into design decisions.
Delivery
Collaborated with Engineering, Art, Technical Art, Curriculum, QA, and stakeholders throughout development.
03
From Vision to Release
The initiative evolved through a multi-sprint process that connected stakeholder vision, product planning, experience design, research, iteration, and implementation.
Define
Stakeholder vision, PI Planning, feature definition
Design
User flows, wireframes, prototypes
Test
Research hypotheses and moderated playtests
Iterate
Research insights, design decisions, sprint demos
Deliver
Engineering, Art, Technical Art, QA, release
04
Research Changed the Design
Major iterations were validated through moderated playtests with children. Before each session, I partnered with Research to define hypotheses, align on objectives, and identify the behaviors we wanted to observe.
One important finding came from navigation and manipulation patterns. Younger children struggled with drag-and-drop interactions and vertical browsing gestures.
Observation
Vertical browsing was difficult for younger users to control consistently during playtests.
Decision
The browsing experience was redesigned around horizontal navigation to make customization more predictable.
Why It Mattered
Interaction patterns needed to reflect the motor skills and cognitive abilities of the youngest users.
Iteration Loop
Hypothesis → Prototype → Playtest → Observation → Insight → Iteration.
05
Designing for Young Learners
Although the platform served children across a broader age range, Avatar Activity was intentionally optimized for younger users.
Large Touch Targets
Interaction areas were designed around the motor skills of younger children.
Minimal Reading
Visual communication was prioritized so children could understand and navigate with limited reading dependency.
Focused Choices
Customization remained expressive while reducing unnecessary cognitive load.
Scalable Personalization
The interaction model was designed to support additional categories and future personalization experiences.
Customization Experience
Children could personalize their avatar through a simple visual system organized around categories such as skin tone, hair, tops, bottoms, shoes, and accessories.
Early concepts explored allowing children to save multiple avatars through several customization slots. The experience was simplified to one active avatar, reducing complexity while preserving creativity and self-expression.
06
Connecting Self-Expression with Rewards
Avatar Activity connected personalization with the platform's broader reward economy.
Children earned tickets by completing educational activities across the platform. Tickets could then be used in dedicated stores to unlock cosmetic items, seasonal collections, and additional customization options.
This created a reinforcing loop between learning, rewards, self-expression, and continued engagement.
Learn
Complete educational activities
Earn
Receive tickets
Unlock
Access new avatar items
Express
Customize the avatar
Return
Strengthen connection and continue learning
07
Outcome & Reflection
Experience Evolution
Modernized one of the platform's highest-engagement experiences while preserving its core appeal.
Research-Driven Interaction
Improved interaction patterns through iterative moderated playtesting with children.
Scalable Foundation
Established a personalization framework that could support broader avatar-based experiences over time.
Cross-functional Delivery
Strengthened collaboration across Product, Research, Engineering, Art, Technical Art, Curriculum, and QA.
This project reinforced that designing for children requires much more than simplifying an interface. It requires understanding motor skills, cognitive development, attention, and interaction patterns that differ fundamentally from those designed for adults.
Leading the feature from concept through delivery strengthened my ability to balance product strategy, research, Agile execution, and cross-functional collaboration while creating an experience designed to be both engaging and meaningful.