A connected TV and mobile learning experience that helps children understand one line in context, practice privately, and premiere their approved voice back on the family screen.
The child rehearses privately on mobile, then sends one approved take back to the shared TV.Written walkthrough
The child records on the phone, reviews the take privately, chooses Send, and watches the approved voice play inside the TV scene.
My contribution
Research synthesis · cross-device UX · TV + mobile interaction design · high-fidelity prototyping · motion walkthroughs
Role
Product Designer
Context
Group research input · individual final concept · ArtCenter 2026
Scope
3 TV flows + 1 connected TV–mobile–TV flow · 16 TV states · 8 connected states
The brief asked me to refine three TV learning flows and extend one into a meaningful mobile companion. I synthesized collaborative research into the final opportunity, designed the TV and mobile interactions, built the high-fidelity prototypes, and created six motion walkthroughs and the final presentation.
AudienceStory-led children ages 8?11 + families
ContributionCollaborative research foundation; individual final concept and experience design
ToolsFigma · React · TypeScript · CSS
01 · RESEARCH + OPPORTUNITY
Stories start the action. Family makes it matter.
Multiple interview rounds across children, parents, and adult LEGO fans were synthesized through affinity mapping and critique of the existing LEGO media journey.
01
The big TV creates immersion
Children preferred the large shared screen for story, character, and action.
02
Characters trigger action
Story moments motivated interest in building, collecting, and extending play.
03
Completion wants recognition
Finishing became more meaningful when a parent or family member could see it.
Synthesized persona based on recurring patterns. This is an illustrative scenario, not a research participant photograph.
SYNTHESIZED PERSONA · AGES 8?11
Meet the story-led family viewer.
They watch LEGO stories with family, understand the broad scene, and want time to make an unfamiliar line their own before speaking.
Goal
Understand one memorable line and participate when ready.
Needs
Big-screen context, one clear action, time to try, and a visible family payoff.
Friction
Unfamiliar words, confusing instructions, and pressure to perform too early.
“Help me keep the story going, understand what I heard, and choose when my family hears me.”
THE GAP
The story created momentum. The experience lost it at the credits.
Characters already move children from watching into building, collecting, and family play. But the narrative often disappears after the video or build is complete. A conventional lesson could interrupt the movie and make speaking feel like a public test.
The opportunity was to extend one meaningful story moment into active English practice—without replacing the story or putting the child on the spot.
“Got the LEGO Batman set because of the movie, but it doesn’t feel like the movie.”Participant B, age 11
HOW MIGHT WE
Help a child make one LEGO story line their own— without breaking the family viewing moment?
01Keep the scene, lyric, movie, and timestamp together.
02Make the quiz, phrase builder, and performance direction optional.
03Keep the shared story on TV and vulnerable practice on mobile.
04Design TV actions for a remote—not a mouse.
05End with a visible family payoff.
02 · EXPERIENCE ARCHITECTURE
Watch → Understand → Practice → Perform
The experience extends one line the child has already heard instead of opening another feed of content. Context stays visible; support stays optional; sharing stays controlled.
01WatchStory + synchronized lyrics
02UnderstandOne word in its scene
03PracticeOptional help + private take
04PerformApproved family premiere
V1 fully prototypes one Piece by Piece mission using the word “story.” Additional story cards demonstrate how the system could scale; they are not complete lessons.
DEVICE ROLES
Each device handles the moment it is best at.
Shared state includes the selected story, playback position, current line, learning stage, recording state, and premiere state. The devices coordinate without mirroring each other.
Shared screen
TV holds the story and payoff.
Immersive playback and synchronized lyrics
Preserved scene and story context
Remote-native navigation with one visible focus
Family premiere and earned reward
The phone is not a smaller TV. While the scene plays, it becomes quiet and returns attention to the story.
TV INTERACTION MODEL
Designed for ten-foot viewing—not a website on TV.
D-pad arrows move one visible focus.
Enter selects; Space plays or pauses.
Back returns without losing the line.
A white surface with a thick yellow ring shows selection.
Lyrics become interactive only when paused, while the original scene stays visible.
Context remains visible from scene to lyric to saved word.
03 · REMOTE-NATIVE TV EXPERIENCE
Three flows turn one story into a complete learning loop.
Each walkthrough uses remote focus rather than a mouse pointer. The movie stays visually primary, and one clear decision advances each state.
INTERACTION WALKTHROUGH · AUTOPLAY
Browse stories → Choose Piece by Piece → Start the lesson → Watch with lyrics.Written walkthrough
Remote focus moves from the home screen to the movie library, selects Piece by Piece, starts the lesson, and begins playback with synchronized lyrics.
TV FLOW 01 · DISCOVER + WATCH
Choose a story and begin learning inside the movie.
Remote focus moves from Home to the story library, opens Piece by Piece, and starts a lesson with synchronized lyrics. One focused path begins the mission without extra onboarding or a mouse cursor.
01Browse stories
02Choose Piece by Piece
03Start the lesson
04Watch with lyrics
INTERACTION WALKTHROUGH · AUTOPLAY
Pause the story → Select one lyric → Learn in context → Save the word.Written walkthrough
The story pauses, remote focus selects one lyric, a contextual definition opens beside the scene, and the word is saved.
TV FLOW 02 · LYRIC TO WORD
Turn one movie lyric into a word worth keeping.
The child pauses on a line, selects the lyric they just heard, and learns the word “story” while the movie scene remains visible. Saving creates a reusable word brick instead of a detached flashcard.
01Pause the story
02Select one lyric
03Learn in context
04Save the word
INTERACTION WALKTHROUGH · AUTOPLAY
Record one line → Hear feedback → Claim a badge → Choose the next story.Written walkthrough
The child starts and stops a recording, sees strengths-based prototype feedback, claims a badge, and returns to story discovery.
TV FLOW 03 · SPEAK + REWARD
Say one line, receive feedback, and continue the adventure.
The child records one line, sees strengths-based prototype feedback, claims a badge, and returns to story discovery. The value is a clear completion loop—not a validated pronunciation score.
01Record one line
02Hear prototype feedback
03Claim a badge
04Choose the next story
04 · TV → MOBILE → TV
One shared story. One private choice. One family premiere.
The connected mission protects the vulnerable middle of the experience. The child chooses support, records, replays, and retakes on the phone; the TV receives only the approved performance.
1PairMatch the six-digit code
2WatchPhone becomes quiet
3ChooseQuiz or Record Now
4RecordPrivate replay + retake
5TVExplicit Send + premiere
USER FLOW
Two screens, one decision path.
Every state belongs to the device that can do it best. The phone never mirrors the TV, and nothing reaches the shared screen without an explicit Send.
Solid lines are the main path. The dashed gray branch is the optional relearn, the coral loop is a retake that never leaves the phone, and the green loop returns to the story library after the premiere.Written flow
The family pairs the TV and phone with a short code. The child chooses a story lesson on the phone; the TV plays it with synchronized English lines while the phone stays quiet. Pausing on a line opens an optional relearn on the phone: check one meaning, then rebuild the line from phrase bricks. Relearning can be skipped entirely. The child then records the line privately on the phone and reviews it there. A retake re-records without anything reaching the TV. Only an explicit Send premieres the approved take in the movie on the shared screen, which awards a badge and returns to the story library.
8-SCREEN EXPERIENCE FLOW
Every line begins and ends on a real component.
Tap, automatic, retry, and TV ? mobile sync paths connect pairing to the final premiere.
Click 1-8 below or use the arrow keys to move through the deck. Slide five holds the full component map, where yellow marks direct taps, gray automatic transitions, coral retry paths, and blue the cross-device sync.Open the deck full screen
SELECT A STATE · 01?08
Inspect the handoff one decision at a time.
Choose any state to enlarge the real TV and mobile screens, then use the arrow keys to continue the journey.
01 / 08 · CONNECT
Pair the screens
A short code establishes the living-room session before any learning task begins.
TV shows the code · Mobile confirms the session
04A · PAIR + CHOOSE
The phone acts; the TV confirms.
The phone matches the TV code, connects, and selects one scene while the shared screen waits and confirms each change.
INTERACTION WALKTHROUGH · AUTOPLAY
The phone performs the action; the TV confirms the result.Written walkthrough
The phone matches the TV code, connects, and selects a story while the television confirms each change.
04B · CHOOSE SUPPORT
Relearning is available, never forced.
After the scene, the child chooses Quick Quiz or Record Now. Optional Line Builder and feeling direction support expression without becoming gates.
INTERACTION WALKTHROUGH · AUTOPLAY
Relearning is available, never forced.Written walkthrough
After the story pauses, the child chooses between a quick optional quiz and recording immediately.
Record → private review → explicit Send → TV premiere. The full walkthrough loops in the hero.
04C · RECORD + PREMIERE
The child controls when the family hears the take.
A countdown prepares the child while the TV keeps the line visible. The phone records and displays a waveform. Replay and Retake stay private; only Send + play on TV moves the approved take to the family screen.
Critique focused the concept by removing unnecessary decisions and assigning the remaining decisions to the device that could handle them best. These revisions are critique-informed—not results from child usability testing.
01The script competed with the videoOpen
Earlier issueLearning content and the movie demanded attention at the same time.
Final decisionKeep the movie primary; place lyrics below it and activate them only through pause or focus.
Reveal support at the moment of need.
02Support felt mandatoryOpen
Earlier issueThe child had to finish a quiz and phrase-building task before recording.
Final decisionOffer Quick Quiz or Record Now. Keep Line Builder optional and add Build It for Me.
Relearning is available, never forced.
03Recording felt publicOpen
Earlier issueThe early handoff did not make clear when the family could hear the child.
Final decisionKeep recording, replay, and retake on the phone. Only explicit Send moves the approved take to TV.
Make the privacy boundary visible and controllable.
04Too many steps added noiseOpen
Earlier issueRepeated progress labels and small decisions made the mobile journey feel longer than the learning task.
Final decisionUse one five-stage spine—Connect, Watch, Choose, Record, TV—with one primary decision per screen.
Child-facing clarity matters more than exposing every system state.
05The TV felt like a webpageOpen
Earlier issueBrowser proportions and mouse-like behavior weakened the living-room context.
Final decisionMove to a fixed 16:9 canvas, remote-native focus, ten-foot type, and pointer-free TV walkthroughs.
Design for the physical context, not only the viewport.
The early TV-only direction surfaced speaking too soon. The final system keeps story and reward on TV, but moves choice, rehearsal, and approval to mobile.
Validation covered remote and keyboard behavior, touch navigation, synchronized TV/phone states, motion-task rails, component containment, TV-scale readability, long-word behavior, and the explicit Send boundary.
The current prototype simulates cross-device synchronization in one web experience. It does not claim two production devices communicate over a deployed network, and it is not a substitute for child usability or learning-efficacy research.
06 · OUTCOME + NEXT STEPS
A complete learning loop—with the hypothesis boundary still visible.
The final prototype demonstrates a cohesive, testable multi-device system. It does not yet demonstrate learning impact, engagement lift, confidence, or retention.
3remote-native TV flows
1TV → mobile → TV mission
16standalone TV states
8connected states
6motion walkthroughs
18final presentation slides
CHILD VALUE
One contextual learning win.
Understand one line and control when the family hears the result.
FAMILY VALUE
Privacy, then celebration.
A clear boundary for rehearsal followed by one shared premiere.
BUSINESS HYPOTHESIS
A reusable post-scene mission.
A structure that can test lesson starts, saved words, completion, and return-to-story behavior.
DESIGNED PAYOFF
The story does not end at a score screen.
The approved voice changes the shared scene, and the Voice Director badge explains the behavior that was completed before guiding the child back to another story.
NEXT ROUND
Test the learning loop—not more features.
01
Understand
Can the child explain and reuse the selected word after the story?
Observe recall, new-sentence use, and return to the original scene.02
Complete
Can they finish the TV → phone → TV journey without adult help?
Observe pairing, backtracking, replay, Send, and premiere completion.03
Trust
Do children and parents understand that the take stays private until Send?
Observe microphone-state understanding, recording comfort, and retake behavior.
REFLECTION
Cross-device design is not about adding more screens; it is about assigning each device the moment it handles best.
The TV was best for shared attention, story scale, and celebration. The phone was best for private choice, microphone input, rehearsal, and approval. Separating those responsibilities made the product simpler—and naming the research boundary made the next test more credible.
TRY THE FULL MISSION
A story becomes a word. A word becomes a voice.
Pair, watch, choose support, review privately, and send one approved take to the family TV.
Independent academic concept. LEGO is a trademark of the LEGO Group. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by the LEGO Group or the owners of the referenced film content.
