Kids' Summer Campaign
Designed a gamified activity experience for Youku's summer kids campaign, where children collected puzzle pieces and redeemed treasure boxes by watching episodes. Built the experience in 8 weeks, focusing on simple, engaging interactions that helped drive a 12.2% increase in total streams during the first month.
What is Youku?
UI & UX Design
My Role
Each month during the summer, a new IP is featured on a dedicated activity page where kids are encouraged to watch the show.
My role in this project is to design the UX and UI for the activity page for the 1st month, which is a popular Chinese children's show “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf,” ensuring that the process is fun and simple for kids to engage with independently.
The Challenge
How can we create a fun and intuitive activity page that keeps kids engaged while ensuring easy navigation and understanding?
Address Existing Problem
After reviewing the previous year's design for this activity, there was a key issue that caused a lack of user engagement and needed improvement.
The activity rules were overly complicated, leading to parents completing the tasks on behalf of their children rather than the kids engaging directly.
It wasn't focusing on the target audience of this activity page.
To address these problems in this year's project, we want to simplify the activity process to ensure it is easy for children to follow and enjoy independently.
User Research
To understand how children interact with digital activity pages, we conducted interviews, observations, and usability testing with children (ages 5–10) and their parents. Sessions took place in familiar environments using digital surveys and guided activities, allowing children to share their thoughts naturally while parents provided insights on usability, parental controls, and educational value.
Key Findings
Engagement Factors
Children were most drawn to bright colors, animated interactions, playful sound effects, and rewards such as badges or unlockable prizes.
Challenges & Confusions
Text-heavy instructions and multi-step flows often caused confusion. Visual storytelling and audio guidance helped children understand the rules more easily.
Interaction Behaviors
Kids preferred simple tap-based interactions, especially on mobile, and responded well to immediate feedback like confetti or celebratory sounds.
Competitor Analysis
Ideation
Base on the user research and findings, I created a simple user flow chart to organize my ideas, and map out potential user journey from the Honor Badge page and activity page. It ensures a seamless and engaging experience, guiding users through each step with intuitive interactions and gamification elements.
Gamification Strategy
Through user research and competitor analysis, I identified key engagement drivers for young audiences. Based on these insights, I brainstormed ways to simplify engagement while maintaining excitement. The puzzle piece collection system was chosen because:
It provides a clear sense of progression (visual feedback).
It encourages continued participation (watching more episodes).
It taps into the excitement of completing a set (closure effect).
To further enhance motivation, I introduced treasure boxes as a reward milestone for puzzle completion.
Wireframe
Final Design
The activity page uses a vibrant palette of bright pastels, including light green, blue, and pink, to create a cheerful, kid-friendly experience. The gender-neutral colors appeal to all children, while generous white space keeps the interface clear and easy to navigate.
Feedback
We have received possible feedbacks from kids users and their parents, demonstrating a success in simplifying the activity rule and design choices.
Unique Viewers
total streams
Key Insights & Reflections
Learned to design for a unique audience
Designing for children required simplifying interactions, prioritizing visual communication, and creating experiences that felt intuitive and engaging.
Strengthened research-driven design
Working closely with children and parents reinforced how user research can uncover behavioral insights that directly shape design decisions.Balanced user needs with business goals
Learned to create experiences that delighted young users while supporting campaign engagement and measurable business outcomes.Grew through cross-functional collaboration
Collaborated with product, marketing, and engineering to translate ideas into a cohesive experience while balancing design, technical, and brand constraints.
