Project brief
Like many startups, Nine Tales had an idea. They saw an opportunity to connect families, especially those living in different parts of the world, through stories. They wanted to build a mobile app that could enable loved ones to record story voiceovers for children and needed help bringing their solution to life. As a startup with experts in business and software development, Nine Tales engaged us as their long-term design partner to design their mobile app and build their brand.
Understanding the users
While Nine Tales had that initial concept, they knew they needed to test it with their target audience to understand how users would interact with it and find opportunities to make their app the best it could be. To do this, we created a prototype and put it into people’s hands to help them quickly understand the design concept and get their feedback.
By testing the prototype with parents, we learned which features were most valued (and just as importantly, which features didn’t work, and why) and gained new ideas directly from the users.
Our research helped Nine Tales to shape their business and marketing strategy, identifying exactly who their target customer was and how they could win them over. We also helped Nine Tales conduct a competitor analysis to understand how they could further stand out in the children’s ebooks market.
Translating insights into design
With a clear understanding of what users needed from a children’s storytelling app, we worked closely with Nine Tales to establish the improved design concept. Here’s a look at the key design recommendations we made based on our research findings:
And here’s a look at some of the key features that we designed for the app’s launch!
To learn more about our design process, read our case study on how we designed the mobile app.
Building the brand
Finally, every company needs an identity to showcase who they are to the world, help them differentiate themselves from competitors, and establish trust with customers. Building on the company’s core values (connecting families across generations, teaching life lessons, and inspiring creativity in readers and storytellers), we worked closely with the Nine Tales’ founders to define their brand personality: one that inspired growth, was fun and energetic, and that reflected the many facets of human emotions.
Read more about how we crafted Nine Tales’ logo and branding, and how we designed their website to introduce their startup to the world.
Partnering with Nine Tales from the start enabled us to deliver a more cohesive strategy that impacted everything from brand to product. This is when we do our best work, when we work closely with like-minded partners to bring all of our strengths to the table. Whether you are a startup with a visionary idea or an enterprise looking for a fresh take, we’d love to work with you to bring your vision to life!
