Designing the Parent Zone for Disney BYJU’S Early Learn
I am going to talk about another favorite project of mine, the Parent zone for Disney BYJU'S App.
In my first week at BYJU'S, I was assigned an exciting challenge: creating a space where parents could actively track and participate in their child’s educational journey within the Disney BYJU’S Early Learn app.
About Disney BYJU’s Early Learn
The Disney BYJU’S Early Learn app is a subscription-based educational platform designed for young learners. It helps children build essential math, language, and reading skills through personalized learning adventures with beloved Disney and Pixar characters like Frozen, Toy Story, and The Lion King. The app also pairs with Magic Workbooks for an interactive learning experience.
So what exactly was this project?
Despite the app’s success in engaging children, the team identified a gap: There was no existing feature for parents to get involved and monitor their child's learning progress.
The challenge was to create the Parent Zone that would offer meaningful insights without overwhelming parents with information, blending educational value with a design.
My Role and Responsibilities
As a Product Designer, my responsibilities included designing the Parent Zone, collaborating with developers and product managers, ensuring the final design aligned with both parents' needs and the app’s educational goals.
After being assigned to the project, I got access to the research insights that the team had already gathered.
So, what did the research reveal?
Most parents want to be informed about their child's activity and progress at each stage and should be able to demonstrate those skills in the real world.
Key Insights,
Parental Involvement: Parents wanted to feel actively involved in their child’s learning process.
Screen Time Concerns: There was a need to address parental concerns about screen time, ensuring that the time spent on the app was educational and productive.
Desire for a Safe Environment: Safety was a top priority for parents. They wanted to ensure that the platform was secure, with content that was appropriate for their child's age and learning level.
Engagement: Parents were interested in features that would allow them to participate in activities with their child, reinforcing the skills being learned in the app.
These insights provided a solid foundation for the Parent Zone design, ensuring that we were creating something that truly met the needs of our users.
Competitive Analysis
I began by exploring how other educational platforms were engaging parents. The goal was to understand what was working well in the industry and where we could innovate.
One common pattern I noticed was that while most educational apps offered a basic dashboard where parents could view their child’s progress in a linear, data-driven format, they often failed to engage parents emotionally and to give them actionable insights. They felt static and transactional.
On the other hand apps like Khan Academy which engage users through,
Structured Learning Path
Celebratory Achievements
Gamification Elements
Engaging progress tracking
Khan Academy successfully created a sense of accomplishment and involvement for the user, which is exactly what we wanted to achieve for parents in our app.
Design Approach
Inspired by these insights, I decided to focus on a design that would be both informative and engaging.
For the visual language, I aimed to create a space that felt warm and inviting, while still aligning with BYJU'S brand identity.
User flow
This flow will ensure that parents could quickly access information and engage with their child's progress without unnecessary complexity.
Parent zone
We included a secure gateway for the Parent Zone to prevent children from accidentally editing or deleting their profiles. This feature was crucial in maintaining the integrity of the account and ensuring that parents remained in control.
All parent-facing screens except the one in the child’s world are intentionally designed in portrait mode. During testing, we identified that it was very difficult for parents to enter the child’s details in landscape mode rather than portrait mode.
The Parent Zone was designed as the command centre for parents—a place where they could monitor, manage, and celebrate their child’s progress. Parents need to feel connected to their child’s achievements.
This was about giving parents a sense of ownership and involvement.
The navigation is intentionally kept simple, with a focus on key areas such as account details, my child, and payment plans. This straightforward approach minimizes complexity, ensuring that parents can find what they need without hassle.
Now let's talk about the my child section which is an important page in the parent zone.
Before designing, several key questions were raised during the design process: What do we need to display? How do we effectively engage parents with their child's progress? What visualizations, like pie charts, should we use?
We figured out a strategy that led to dividing the page into distinct sections.
Achievements Display: Highlight's the child’s key accomplishments, providing a visual summary of their learning milestones. This wasn’t just a report—it was a celebration, designed to make both the parent and child proud.
Usage Summary: Recognizing the importance of balanced screen time, designed a summary that broke down the child’s activities, helping parents understand where their child’s time was spent and ensuring it aligned with their educational goals.
Skill Progress Tracker: We built a detailed tracker that allowed parents to see their child’s growth across different skill areas, such as Cognitive, Reading, and Procedural Thinking. This feature was crucial in providing reassurance that the app was delivering on its educational promises.
Interactive Recommendations: Based on the child’s progress, parents receive personalized recommendations for activities they could do with their child, fostering a sense of co-learning and reinforcing what the child was learning in the app.
In addition to the subscription-based version of the Disney BYJU'S Early Learn app, there is also a Freemium version that offers parents access to a more basic version of the Parent Zone.
Conclusion
The feature helped to:
Increase Parental Engagement
Parents found the skill progress tracker and interactive recommendations particularly helpful in guiding their child’s educational activities.
Features like screen time management, address common concerns around excessive screen time
key Learnings
Creative Freedom: Working within BYJU'S brand guidelines while introducing new visual elements allowed me to balance consistency
Time Management: Working with a tight two-week deadline sharpened my skills in prioritizing features and delivering high-quality designs under pressure.