How Kutuki
motivated
young children to
play purposefully in a digital world

Learner

Children aged 3-7

Topic

Foundational Skills:
Reading/Writing, Numeracy, Habits, Thinking & Creativity, Social & Emotional Learning

Format

Mobile Application (iOS, Android)

Kutuki is a preschool learning app designed by educators and artists that seamlessly blends art and technology to create fun, contextual and developmentally appropriate learning resources. Through stories, rhymes and interactive games, they nurture early skill development in India's youngest learners.

In a world filled with distractions, capturing a child’s attention and fostering essential skills presents a unique challenge.

In this case study, we explore how Kutuki tackled the topic of productive screen time through Parental Control, Repetitive Character Universe, and Effective Content Architecture.

What’s Inside

Problem (4 mins read):
Decoding diminishing engagement on the app

Process (2 mins read):
Positioning children as design partners

Implementation (5 mins read):
Teaching Kids through imagery and playful discovery

Impact (2 mins read):
A tale of three new friends

Problem

Decoding diminishing engagement on the app

In today's digital age, the allure of screens is undeniable. Screen-free days will be rare. Parents have been facing unique stresses, with work and home life boundaries blurring unprecedentedly.

As for young children, their curiosity is incomparable. Children ask questions because they want to know. Naturally curious, hungry for information, and constantly churning out new facts to understand the world. When parents find their younglings entranced in the pixelated glow of screens, it's natural for them to be concerned. Children often consume media passively, and that is what can be detrimental. Parents might want concrete guidance on ensuring that their child's screen exposure is healthy and balanced.

Kutuki relieved parents by convincing them about the upside to screen time, teaching kids to play more independently.

Who were these parents who could benefit from Kutuki?

Tech-Savy

Focused on bringing newness into their young ones' lives instead of following the herd.
Maintains an exclusive device for the child with handpicked content and apps.
Well-informed of early learning best practices.
Wants to impart Indian culture along with Westernised content.
Financially independent to make purchasing decisions for their kids.

Partially Tech-Savy

Focused on providing better opportunities for their young ones than they received.
Concerned about unsafe screen time.
Aware of the importance of early learning but needs direction.
Wants their kids to understand the importance of Indian culture.
May or may not be financially independent, affecting purchasing decisions for their kids.

Not Tech-Savy

Focused on engaging the child while juggling chores
Not aware of what to teach their children. Majorly influenced by teacher's recommendations.
Wants their kids to stay connected to their cultural heritage and traditions while also acquiring fluency in English.
Not financially independent and hence cautious about budgeting for needs.

What did Kutuki do about it?

Sneha and Bharath, the founders of Kutuki, started off wanting to create a contextualised content library for preschoolers in India to address parental concerns about productive screen time. This was further validated when schools approached them to compose songs and rhymes tailored for Indian students due to the lack of culturally relevant content owing to their reputation as professional musicians.

“Children in this age group need to learn from familiar content they can connect with and draw references from rather than relying solely on Westernised content.’'

(Source: Sneha, Founder Kutuki)

After a year of user testing, focus group discussions, and interviews with parents and children pedagogy experts, they concluded that the most popular keyword searches in the preschool category were storytelling apps, rhymes for kids, letter writing, and storybooks for kids.

Kutuki's learning app was launched with a limited content library divided into categories parents could easily search for. The UI was simple, focusing more on visual and audio nudges, given that the primary user of this app was a preschooler.

Following the launch of Kutuki, they observed that while parents appreciated the localised content and Indian characters that Kutuki brought to the table, the children were not intrinsically motivated to use the app.

Children dropped off the app around the 30-day mark.

Quizzes weaved into the content pieces were filled incorrectly.

What happened next?

Spending further time with their learner audience, caregivers' and internal stakeholders gave them deep insights into how children access learning and how it fits into their environment.

How did they motivate young children to return to the app to learn, especially when they wanted to play?

Scroll below to learn more!

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Process

Positioning children as design partners

Here is how Kutuki approached this -

Based on the problems that they had identified, they came up with a set of hypotheses. If Kutuki focuses on creating relatable and aspirational characters, integrates frequent checks for understanding, and incorporates playful learning experiences, there will be an increase in quiz completion rates, reduced drop-offs from the app, and higher engagement levels among young learners.
- Focus on a child-centric approach: Allow children to self-discover and learn through their own experiences and interests, as children at this age want their preferences to be acknowledged.
- Build familiar and aspirational characters: For 30 minutes of screen time, children would instead connect with relatable characters, fostering peer-like connections. The characters’ traits should connect with the aspirations of the young learner.
- Avoid stereotypes: Craft characters that defy gender stereotypes as early learning philosophies emphasise the role of observational learning in shaping behaviours; children imitate characters’ actions.
- Integrate storytelling: Child-friendly plotlines and repetition that allow scaffolding, inspired by the success of characters like Peppa Pig.
Children in this age group need to learn from familiar content they can connect with and draw references from rather than relying solely on Westernised content. Since the brief was clear, creating these characters meant creating a design that speaks personality, attitude, and relatability rooted in Indian culture. And most importantly, children (the users) should be able to identify themselves with it.
Recognising that children's interests and language abilities vary widely, Kutuki sought to create content that resonated with diverse backgrounds and developmental stages. By identifying children's strengths and areas that needed nurturing, Kutuki had to tailor the content to support individual growth and development.
Progress: Highlight how the child progresses in different subjects or skills.
Engagement: Show how often the child uses the app and how long they spend on various activities.
Achievements: Include any badges, certificates, or milestones the child has achieved.
Areas for Improvement: Identify areas where the child may need more focus or assistance.

Arriving at a framework that tied these together

They categorised their thought process into three buckets - Context, Child, and Consumption.

The design process that followed featured joyful characters, lots of colour, and pure delight for young learners.

Join in on the fun.

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Implementation

Teaching kids through imagery & playful discovery

1. Parental Control

Kutuki tapped into a community of like-minded parents who were motivated to create opportunities for their children to feel a sense of pride in connecting with their own culture.

“Kutuki not only helps my daughter develop English and Math Skills but also teaches her values about her culture. After being addicted to Peppa Pig for so long, it's refreshing to see an app with Indian Characters!”

(Source: Parent)

Parents play a crucial role as stakeholders in their children's learning journey. Kutuki recognised that parents were not mere observers but active participants in making learning engaging and productive for their little ones. Here's how Kutuki strategically engaged with parents and harnessed their power to spread the word.

Empowering Parents & Spreading the Word

They make it easy for parents to discover Kutuki by being readily available on popular app stores (iOS & Android). This ensures parents searching for quality educational content for their children stumble upon their app.
Nothing speaks louder than the trust and recommendation of fellow parents. When parents see positive results and engagement from their children using Kutuki, they naturally advocate the brand.
They engage parents through a vibrant online presence, particularly on platforms like Instagram and YouTube. They showcase what Kutuki can do for children through informative and visually appealing content.
They collaborate with preschools that recognise the value of their content. When parents see their child's development flourish at these institutions, they often inquire about the resources used and discover Kutuki in the process.
In some of the remotest parts of the country, their partnership with VLEs through the Common Services Centre scheme brings Kutuki's educational offerings directly to parents. These on-ground educators help bridge the digital divide, making the app accessible to families who may not have discovered it otherwise.
Their exclusive content usage in CSC Bal Vidyalayas fosters a sense of trust among parents, who recognise that educational institutions are choosing Kutuki as their preferred learning resource.

But with a zillion apps out there, how can parents know which ones are truly beneficial and how much screen time is too much?

That's where two trusty sidekicks come in - Screen Time Regulators and Learner Reports.

The app adheres to screen time standards set by WHO, and parents have the freedom to pre-decide play time in the app.

The learning report provides a macro and micro view of a child’s learning journey on the app . The macro view shows learning across subjects, time spent, and rewards earned for content completion. The micro view shows what topics have been learnt in each subject and its completion stage.

Weekly Macro View

Weekly Micro View

Lifetime Macro View

What did they learn?

1) When parents have the ability to regulate screen time, they can be assured that their child is not spending excessive hours on devices, promoting a healthy balance between technology use and other activities.
2) Parental involvement in a child's education is crucial. Without access to learner reports, parents may not know if their child is making the expected educational progress, which can lead to concerns about their child's development. Additionally, if a child is struggling with specific concepts or areas of development, parents may not be aware of these challenges without progress reports. Early intervention and support can be crucial for addressing any learning difficulties.
Parents expressed concerns about their children using YouTube due to safety and content quality. When Kutuki asked for parent feedback, they loved the app's safe and learning-focused content.

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2. Character Design

Kid's media brands targeted at the preschool segment, such as Sesame Street, Peppa Pig, and Dora the Explorer, owe their success to the consistent universe of characters they have created. Children are able to connect with these characters, and this has paved the way for the brands to expand their digital intellectual property into physical products, live events, theme parks, and more. The character-centric approach aligns with the fact that children in this age group recall and remember things better through repetition.

But who is India's Peppa Pig? A challenge Kutuki took head-on.

“Our goal was to design characters representing Indian children who act as peers or saathis in Hindi, guiding, inspiring and motivating kids to learn something new every day."

(Source: Sneha, Founder)

Apart from the Founders, a team of illustrators, animators, educators and storytellers were involved in the ideation, research, iterations, and design of the final characters visualised in the timeline below.

2018

Character Development. Research, Ideation, and Initial Design

2019

100+ Character Iterations

“The learning experience is rooted in reality. Children start with the familiar and then move towards the unfamiliar. A fictitious character in a fantastical world might intrigue the child, but they might not necessarily learn anything from this character. Kutuki balances reality and fiction with two human characters and an animal one.”

(Source: Sneha, Founder)

What did they learn?

Kutuki's users can relate to the characters Kutu and Ki. In fact, one learner gave a testimonial saying that they wanted to be brave like Ki. These aspirational characters and their actions influence children's behavior and help them adopt positive traits through storytelling.
- A key discovery by Kutuki initially was that their content library had various designs and formats with different characters, lacking a single memorable hook to motivate children to return to the app on their own.
- Instead, having 2 or 3 characters is ideal for establishing recall with these characters. You can focus on adding secondary characters with distinct roles to play later.

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Early 2020

Finalised 3 characters

Mid 2020

Launched content with new characters

End of 2020

Experimented with different behavioural-driven content/media formats - Rhymes, Songs, Quizzes & Games

2021 - 2022

Built a library of 2000+ minutes of content with a repetitive character universe

3. Content Architecture

To create a more tactile digital experience, Kutuki had to introduce children to a structured environment where they could interact with the information to use it and feel like they could make decisions, take actions, or accomplish tasks with it.

So, how did they tailor their digital experience for children to learn without the help of a parent?

Mastering Content Format

Kutuki’s UI stems from Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, which describes how children's thinking and reasoning abilities develop over time through evolving stages of development. The key takeaway for Kutuki was the Preoperational Stage of development (2 to 7 years). Some characteristics that children exhibit at this stage are:
1. Children in this stage develop the ability to use symbols, such as words and images, to represent objects and concepts. Kutuki uses interactive and engaging activities that mimic symbolic and imaginative play, like games, puzzles and quizzes.
2. They focus on only one aspect of a situation or object while ignoring other relevant factors. This limited perspective can make them susceptible to errors in problem-solving and reasoning. To address this, Kutuki provides age-appropriate cognitive challenges that encourage children to think and problem-solve. Complex tasks are gradually introduced as the child progresses.
3. Children at this stage often struggle to consider or understand another person's perspective or point of view. All the rhymes, stories and activities gently introduce the concept of taking others' perspectives, sharing and cooperating to promote early social skills.
It's important to understand that every child develops at their own pace, especially in this age group. Therefore, it is not right to force them to conform to a rigid curriculum. To address this, the app has been designed in such a way that every piece of content corresponds to only one learning outcome. Example - Shapes, Units of Time, Collective Nouns, Good Habits. Additionally, they have included a recommendation system which personalises learning journeys based on the child's developmental stage, interests, language, strengths, and areas that need improvement.
The content is tailored to meet the requirements of young learners in India. It includes characters that are relatable, voice-overs in English accents that are easy to understand, an option to learn in the mother tongue, and references to everyday objects, family structures, food habits, and festivals that make learning more relatable for children growing up in India.
Children seek positive feedback for their efforts to feel motivated to continue or repeat a task as they develop. Negative or demoralising words like ‘You are wrong’ or ‘You are incorrect’ are avoided to prevent the child from feeling embarrassed or scared to keep trying. Repetition is crucial for internalising learning at this age, and giving multiple opportunities to attempt something reinforces learning without demotivating the child.

To supplement this visual prompt, a four-year-old voice actor who voices Kutuki’s character provides an audio prompt, reinforcing this recognition. There are several variants for the audio prompts, including “You’ve got a star”, “You are a champ”, and “Well done”. The audio prompts are gender-neutral.

A safe digital space for children

Kutuki's app features a child-friendly navigation system that allows kids to explore the app independently without needing assistance from their parents. The app has been designed so that every piece of content is dedicated to one learning outcome in one of the five fundamental areas of children's development: cultural, emotional, creative, cognitive, and physical.

The format of the content played a significant role in the early success and widespread adoption of Kutuki. The early learning products offered by Kutuki were story and game-based, which is why they integrated songs into the child's learning experience. Consequently, rhymes have become the most popular category on Kutuki since 2019. The app aimed to contextualise learning for young learners in India, and therefore, the musical style was influenced by contemporary music and beats that children enjoy. A similar approach was taken when drafting stories with the help of a multidisciplinary team.

Scaffolded Learning Outcomes

Age-Appropriate Content

Repetition in stories/rhymes

Content in 7 Indian languages

The mascots of Kutuki - Kutu, Ki and Minku were seamlessly integrated into every piece of content, becoming peer learning partners for the children using the app. They are a part of every engagement the child has on the learning app.

Onboarding

Content Selection

Nudging for Content Completion

Addressing Mistakes

Activities

Awarding Rewards

What did they learn?

The repetition of words in rhymes and stories serves as a retrieval cue for learning. Repeated exposure to concepts in rhymes and stories supports retention and the transfer of learning to other contexts, ultimately improving recall and solidifying a strong educational foundation for preschool children.
Based on Kutuki’s experimentation with the pace of the story, sentence length and the beats per minute for songs, they have determined that the duration of the content on the screen should be such that it allows the children to process the information and respond to it. For instance, a song with a beats per minute above 150 is too fast for a child.
Kutuki's content library features many action songs that encourage children to actively engage with the content by mimicking the actions, rather than passively watching.