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more stories than there are stars

Nella

I designed, Named, and branded this project, which was developed by the fine devs at Five & Done. Scroll to get the full story!
discovery

“Tell me about bedtime with your kid”

K
Bedtime routine is often the biggest stress point of the day.
A
It's also the best part of the day because we get to spend time doing something creative with our son.
K
Stories are a way to teach lessons related to my kid’s day.
T
As much as I enjoy being creative, I often find myself struggling with new storylines each day
the Insight

A creative bedtime is a better bedtime,
but it's hard to do that today.

the need

Help parents co-create novel experiences at bedtime with their little ones.

key features

how i made that happen

1. new stories > re-reads

if you wanted to re-read stories, you can't beat "the hungry caterpillar" or "goodnight Moon". To make sure Nella added something new into the mix, I chose to Prioritize new story creation over re-reading existing stories.

2. mad libs made easy

Make it as quick as possible to create a story. Bedtime is stressful enough, so this can’t add onto that stress. Every good story has three parts – a hero, a location, and a plot.

3. main character energy

kids get attached to characters, so the organizing principle of nella was built around characters, not stories.

4. childlike, not childish

Slow it down to be more present with your kid. These will be special memories one day.

5. As child-safe as possible

We took CCPa and COPPA very seriously when designing nella. In the end, I was able to chart a path to enable creativity and user input without compromising any child's privacy or data.
1/5

New stories > re-reads

App Open to character selection

With the priority on New stories, I crafted a Home screen that begins on step 1 of story creation.

one-click story randomizer

To make the story creation as easy as Amazon's one-click add to cart, I added a "shuffle" button that would randomize the three story inputs.

Story Settings

In order to make the new stories compelling, they would need to be appropriate for the situation. This settings screen helped parents quickly dial the story inputs in.
2/5

mad libs made easy

Step 1 - character

Every good story starts with a hero. Parents and children could swipe through the preset characters to choose theirs, or create their own.

step 2 - location

Once the hero of the story is selected, the next logical thing to choose is the environment in which the story should take place.

step 3 - plot

Now that we've established our character and location, parents and children could choose from 10 preset plots to set the scene.
3/5

main character energy

new character creation

We included only 3 preset characters to encourage parents and children to create their own character.

create your character

Have you ever met a kid who didn't want to be the hero of a story? Neither have I. This is how I gave kids a way to put themselves into the story.

"Your stories"

Just because I prioritized new story creation doesn't mean I could do away with your old stories. SOmetimes it's nice to go back to a good one! Generated stories are organized by and accessible through the character carousel.
4/5

Childlike, not childish design

magnetic storytime

Nella strives to make parents feel like children again, so every part of the experience was crafted to slow the experience down and create more moments of connection between parent and child.

Chunky shapes hand-drawn icons

Nella wants to make parents feel like kids again, so every UI element was designed to evoke the imperfection of being a kid again.
5/5

as Child-safe as possible

gentle age-gating

I worked hard to inject the personality of Nella, even in our legalese.

Controlled choice

because everything is saved to the cloud, we chose to limit our usage of open text fields and prevent any entry of P.I.I. Where user input was required, I created a fun selection UI so children would still have the ability to let their imaginations run wild.