Sometimes it's important to just have fun. I was working on a project to develop a playful, creative app for kids called StoryPlay. I was part of a large team with a small budget and a tight deadline. We all loved this project and worked tirelessly toward the goal of creating something that would stimulate the inherent creativity in kids.
In situations like this, things get stressful. So a practical joke was in order. While one of the key designers of the project was on vacation, we created a completely new direction for our product. The new concept: what is the EXACT opposite of something that stimulates creativity? Spreadsheets and time tracking, of course!
Wireframes
With this fun new app, kids can enter and track all that they do. This increases productivity and reduces the stress on moms and dads to constantly tell their kids to clean their rooms. All they have to do is assign "clean your room" as a task and the kids know to get it done. And at the end of the week, it's fun for the whole family to plot "fun time" vs. "work time".
What a god-send for those parents whose children always say, "But I never have any fun!"
You can just imagine mom's data-driven response, "Well, no, Janie. FunTracker says you actually had 10 hours of fun last week. That's up 12% from last week!"
