Big City Vehicles

The Challenge

How can we teach toddlers about city vehicles in an intuitive and interactive way? How can we find a fun and engaging way to teach kids about the role and function of each car? 

The Solution

We conducted a research and observed kids as they learned about new vehicles. First, we spotted various cars and trucks in the city streets. The kids were engaged and interested in learning about each vehicle’s name and specific function. Next, the kids were given toy cars and trucks to play with, as we followed their learning process. We realized that kids best absorb new information by playing and interacting with the car toys. Furthermore, observing the vehicles while strolling on the street sparked the kids’ interest and pushed them to learn more about the role and function of each car. 

This is why we set out to recreate the street experience in an app and allow the kids to be immersed in city life. It was important to have an open play ability so that kids can easily navigate between the subway, sky and street views. We recreated the sounds of the street and added many details that kids can tap on and explore. Our goal was to have users find something new every time they play with the app  (for example, tapping on the mailbox makes a letter fly out, the traffic light stops/starts the vehicles, tapping the fire hydrant splashes out water etc.).

The kids are encouraged to tap on the various cars and complete a task that will teach them about the functionality of that vehicle. All of the tasks are broken down and simplified to be easily completed with little or no parental assistance.The animal characters help the users discover the next mini task through animated gestures and sounds. Since the app is global, we avoided using a specific language for instructions and guidance. Instead, we tested voice commands that resonated with the animals and got the kids’ attention, helping them to finish the various tasks.This process was tricky, and took a lot of testing and refining to get to the right combination of gestures and sound commands that were clear.  A few examples for tasks in the app are: helping the garbage workers pick up the trash and dump it in the garbage truck, helping the ice cream truck worker serve ice cream and toppings, helping the fire truck dogs put out a fire. 

 The tasks in the app are all geared towards pre schoolers, helping them to develop fine motor and problem solving skills (for example, putting out the fire) through color sorting, pattern sorting, shape sorting, counting, matching and more.

We intentionally designed the vehicles and tasks to be gender neutral. The characters have a good mix between female and male and the color patterns we used were tested and liked by both genders.