Art Adventures is an app that provides daily creative play prompts designed to promote collaborative exploration for both children and caregivers. My goal in working on this project was to demystify the artmaking process and invite all users to think more creatively. The arts are often perceived as elite, expensive, and only for the select few born with natural talent. I hope to remove those labels and welcome all into the creative world by simplifying the materials and focusing on the process of artmaking rather than the product.
The connection between caregiver and child was a foundational element of this design, and my aim is to encourage adults to engage more meaningfully with the young people in their lives. Many adults have a fixed mindset about their own creativity, which they in turn model for their children. By working collaboratively on arts-rich activities, both adult and child will strengthen their creative abilities. The prompts will guide users through an open-ended exploration rather than a prescriptive activity, re-centering the play around children’s inquiry.
It was important for me to include an element of reflection and documentation into the app. I wanted to be sure that users are strengthening metacognitive processes and creating a record of their learning for future review. There is space for both child an caregiver to reflect, reinforcing the engagement between adult and child and hopefully prompting deeper conversation. The journal is intended to be shared by the users and their extended circles, inspiring more exploration!
When I began the design process, I was working on an entirely different project, but found that I was running into a lot of internal resistance. I was finding it difficult to stay motivated or passionate about my project, so I took a risk and started from scratch. I went back to the problem I was trying to address and found a direction that felt more attuned to those core values. After deciding on a new path, I began with a rough sketch of the flow of the app and got feedback from users about what kinds of features would be most useful. I tried to follow the principle of designing with users rather than for users. While I ended up in an unexpected place, I’m proud of the way I pushed my own thinking and got more comfortable with uncertainty. I developed new skills and have a better understanding of the design process.
I hope this app inspires families to create together and interact with materials in new ways. Art is for everyone!
