Nick Jr. site redesign

Even though a typical adult Netflix member loses interest after 60 to 90 seconds of choosing, kids seemed to spend on average 3 minutes searching for content of interest if they noticed that games were available.

We attended an all-day workshop with kids, finding that they expected the site/app to know them personally via profiles and recommendation algorithms. The session reflected children’s desire for personalization.

Nick Jr. engineers developed a recommendation engine to follow common watch patterns during day and nighttime video "snacking" and game playing. This would be a passive selection effort for kids, so that if users primarily watched shows that had, for example, animals, magic or cars, content that is related to that subject matter would be offered.

We were well aware that kids enjoy repetition, whether it be repeating sounds or funny clips. We conducted an A/B test for Watch Again, in order to see whether kids understood the concept. There was a lift in usage, so this feature was implemented.

Playlists were displayed as a stack of cards, with no text, and kids would select a video listing that would be tailored to their watch and gaming habits. For instance, the subject matter could be "animals", "vehicles" or "magic". There was a lift in usage, and was implemented as well.

We learned that kids under 5 are remaining active while using our products, even sitting upside-down on a sofa while using a phone! We conducted tests in family living rooms in order to see how parents and children played with our products. Our solution was to design simple pages with no text, to use large tap targets and 3-d buttons.

Kids under 5 have underdeveloped dexterity, so all navigation and content blocks were designed and tested rigorously with kids and parents. Kids loved to browse games and videos while watching, reinforcing the "lean-back & lean-forward" philosophy, so we planned for a picture-in-picture experience while they are watching.