03 → Youtopia
CONTEXT:
Academic Product Development Project with Darren Chin and Sangyu Xi
Spring 2024
This project was developed as a part of a core studio class in fulfillmnet of the Master’s in Design Engineering Degree at Harvard. As a group, we were propmpted to build a product to shape the future of work in 2040, with a target demographic of before career, during career, or after career individuals.
SKILLS DEVELOPED:
UX Design, AI Product Design + Development, User Research, Human Computer Interaction
ABOUT:
What are the most important skills for a future with AI as collaborators and companions? How can we foster healthy and productive relationships between children and AI systems?
Youtopia is a world-building, storytime projector that aims to foster creativity in children through the power of a generative AI. Youtopia is meant to be a bedtime activity, that projects onto your ceiling to create a sense of magic for children. With a friendly, personified, multi-modal generative AI “assistant,” Pablo, they are guided to build their own imaginary world and bring their imagination to life. Youtopia aims to empower children to excercise their creativity in a safe and engaging manner while becoming accustomed to AI tools.
PARACOSMS: FOSTERING CREATIVITY
Youtopia encourages children to engage in “paracosm play.” Paracosms are detailed imaginary worlds that children can oftentimes form, and paracosm play is often associated with higher creativity and problem solving ability. We wanted to leverage a generative-AI assistant to foster paracosm play in children. Youtopia first prompts you to create your own world, and once that world has been detailed, Pablo will take you on storytelling adventures within your imaginary world.
A VOICE UI:
A unique challenge with Youtopia was to create a Voice User Interface for children that would be both intuitive and engaging. We personified the voice as Pablo, the friendlygen-AI assitant that would help would help bring your imagination to life. We included suggested prompts and terms to help keep a user engaged while also remaining open ended to the child’s desired output.
CRAFTING MAGIC:
We wanted Youtopia to feel like a magic portal to a new world. Mimicking the look of children’s storybooks, we wanted each storytelling adventure to be both novel and familiar. PHYSICAL DESIGN: INDUCING NOSTALGIA
An important aspect of the product was to encourage parents to engage with their children through the use of Youtopia. In order to craft an engaging shared experience we took inspiration from video game consoles and toys from the 1990’s and 2000’s, including an a clear cartridge like insert as a portal to an imaginary world.