Goodnight News is an interactive bedtime book in which parents and their young children take turns interviewing one another about their day.  After interviewing parents of 3-6 year olds all around the country, Sonia, Andrea and I set off on a mission to improve the quality time parents and children spend together.  After prototyping a wide range of concepts that brought together parents and children's interests, we found what was most meaningful to parents was time spent learning about their child.

Now available on Amazon.

The Process

Project Duration: 7 months

Initial Research Phase

• Conducted ~10 in depth ethnographic interviews with single parents of young children from across the country (mix of in home and digital)

• Built understanding of daily routines, challenges and delights

• Identified common themes and key opportunities for impact - most notably that families days were split between activities for the parent and those for the child - with very few activities engaging both.  Most activities for the child were boring/obligatory for the adult and vise versa.

Focus & Flair

• Focused mission to expand the quality time 3-6 year old children and parents spend together by bringing their interests together.
• Brainstormed broad range of possible solutions

Prototype & Develop Principles

• Prototyped ideas by finding finding quickest way to the heart of each concept.  This included hacking a playground to test a gym/playground concept (gym swing), taping a city scape onto a blanket (karma-ssage), and many more.
• Observed and interviewed prototype users to develop design principles.
  • Empower child to lead
  • Tailor to energy levels
  • Explore & alter space
• Deduced it's most meaningful to users to deepen parent-child connection by building opportunities to learn about each other into busy routines.  Continued prototyping and testing around this theme.

Refine & Execute

• User feedback from in-home use of Goodnight News showed great promise!  Early prototypes engaged children while allowing parents to learn more about their child's day.
  • "Other books are totally one-way [...] This is really different because it’s really a two-way participation book while still accomplishing the goal of winding-down for the day." - Samantha, mother of 3 year old

  • "The book has opened a whole new world for me and Diego"  - Andrea, mother of 5 year old

• Iterated to amplify success of "Goodnight News" prototype - tested audio and book versions and incorporated user feedback on questions and experience.
• Identified publisher and sales channels.  Edited, illustrated and prepared book for publisher.  Built marketing materials and audience.

See Goodnight News in action!  Video edited by Sonia Doshi.