More fun and memorable Viaplay Kids

Client: Viaplay

Goal: Make children want to come back to Viaplay more often, without encouraging binge watching

Desired impact: Increased retention among families with small children

Team: Me and Jina Kim, both of us did concept and product design

Viaplay presented the opportunity to use an original character

During this 48 hour hackathon Viaplay presented an opportunity to use their original character Fixi within the kids section of the app.

Fixi has her own show called “Fixi in Playland” and it has one season so far. She is a squirrel who lives in Playland and makes sure people can see the shows they want on Viaplay by sending them through red tubes.

My biggest takeaways from the research Viaplay provided us with were:

• Fixi has proven to be really popular among children 4-8 years old.
• Most 4-8 year olds can’t read very well or at all. But the interface relies heavily on text.
• Children don’t know which streaming service they are using.
• What they do remember is the character they like watching (like Dora, Peppa the Pig or Fixi)
• Children choose show by clicking on the image of a character they like.
• The smallest children found it fun to just play around in the interface, scrolling through things.

Our winning concept: Hostess Fixi

Hostess Fixi - makes the Viaplay kids section more fun (for a while).

Our concept Hostess Fixi won first prize in the Viaplay hackathon.

Fixi is not a regular hostess. There are three ways that make her something out of the ordinary…

#1 The Daily Challenges

Everyday in the Kids section Fixi needs help with a daily puzzle. Once completed, Fixi is happy.

The daily puzzles could be adapted to the current weather and time of year. For example: find Fixi’s rain hat, gather snow, remove leaves, find hidden gingerbread cookies or sort out the home screen when someone has made a mess!

#2 The Tube Labyrinth

Instead of just clicking on the show, children can give it to Fixi. Her signature red pipes will appear on the screen and the show has to go through them, just like in Fixi in Playland.

Drag a show you want to play to Fixi. Move it through the tube by tilting the device.

#3 The Very Busy Announcer

Fixi appears in between episodes and announces the next one. After 15 minutes of screen time Fixi will say her goodbyes and wish the user a nice dinner, a good night’s sleep or a fun day at school. This encourages children to do the same and leave Viaplay. At the same time it gives them an incentive to come back the next day when Fixi is back.

After 15 minutes of screen time Fixi will say her goodbyes. Children can continue watching as long as they want, but it won’t be as fun if Fixi is not there anymore.

“You won because you solved our business challenge”

- Head of Product, Viaplay