Terra is an interactive, touch-screen globe with a fun personality that teaches children about Earth Sciences to increase scientific literacy, foster critical thinking & improve learning outcomes. An understanding of scientific concepts allows children to grow into informed adults who can better judge developments in science and technology.

Time Frame: 5 weeks

Role: Research, Art Direction, UX, Motion Design, Illustration, Audio Engineering

Skills & Tools: Illustrator, After Effects, Audition

Collaborators: Alexa Heitzenrader

Our goal was to create an educational robot that has an engaging VUI, that is age appropriate but levels up as your child grows and learns and encourages parental involvement.

We began by ideating on the challenge and landed on the idea of an earth sciences toy. From there we dove into research on earth science education, learning styles and teaching styles as well as the current state of robot and VUI technologies. Based on what we found we decided on educating for elementary aged children with a touch screen globe. From there we made personas of both a child and their parent, a journey map from the perspective of the parent and started moodboarding.

Based off these we developed an ecosystem of features and a design system to inform illustrations.

From our research on age appropriate learning we fleshed out the VUI conversation flows and tone.