About
Playtest with Kids

Playtest with Kids is a toolkit designed to enable teams to create great products by conducting meaningful research with kids.

The methods, techniques, and examples highlighted here have been shared by dozens of companies and vetted by child development researchers. We hope to inspire teams to include children’s voices in their product design process.

Making Playtest
with Kids

This project grew out of an opportunity that friends and collaborators Cathy Tran, Maya Sussman, and Megan Huang saw in their own organizations, where many recognize the benefits of conducting research with kids but lacked the resources to do it effectively. They reached out to the broader community of kids product developers and discovered they weren’t the only ones facing this challenge!

The team developed a set of best practices when conducting research with kids, and tested prototypes with dozens of researchers, designers, and product managers who work on children’s products. The methods were informed by dozens of experts in the field, from organizations including YouTube Kids, Osmo, Square Panda, Toca Boca, Sago Mini, Facebook, Education First, MIT Media Lab, and Sesame Workshop.

card deck prototype
The team tested the methods with dozens of researchers, designers, and product managers who work on children’s products

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop is pleased to make this resource available to the kids product community. In line with our connection to Sesame Workshop and Sesame Street—fittingly, the first children’s program to utilize formative and summative research with kids to plan, produce, and evaluate a children’s television show—the Cooney Center seeks to improve the quality of children’s media and technology products by connecting developers of children’s products, services, and experiences with experts and expert-derived information on UX research, child development, and learning.

We hope that you find the methods outlined here useful – and fun! Please reach out if you’d like to share additional playtesting methods, sign up for (infrequent) updates, or just send a note.

Meet the team

Cathy Tran, PhD

is a UX researcher and design strategist for products for kids, families and teachers, including apps, television, playgrounds, toys and board games. She received her Ed.M. in Technology, Innovation, and Education from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Learning, Cognition, and Development from UC Irvine.

Megan Huang

is the Design Lead for Kids and Families on Google Assistant, and has spent her career leading design teams in the kids and education space, previously as the Director of Design at Osmo and a Design Lead at Kiwi Crate. She received a Master’s in Learning, Design, and Technology from Stanford University.

Maya Sussman

is the Director of Product at Ready4K, where she builds products for families, with a focus on equity and accessibility. She has previously developed and researched education products and programs for kids, educators, and adult learners. Maya has a Master’s in Learning, Design, and Technology from Stanford University.

Catherine Jhee

is the Director of Strategic Communications for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. She is a writer, editor, interactive producer, and creative consultant with more than 10 years of experience creating and distributing educational and documentary content. She has a Master’s in Journalism from Columbia University.

Kiley Sobel, PhD

is a Senior UX Researcher at Duolingo, working on Duolingo ABC. For over 10 years, she’s conducted research with kids, and was previously a Research Scientist at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. She received her Ph.D. in Human Centered Design & Engineering from the University of Washington.

Sarah Sung

is an illustrator who likes to make things for children. She currently works as a designer at Osmo during the day and makes little knick knacks at night. She graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2017 and is currently based in San Jose, CA.

Thanks to the community of playtesters who supported the creation of this resource

  • Sarah Sweney, YouTube Kids
  • Sharon Rylander, Square Panda
  • And the graduate students in Louisa Rosenheck’s Ed Tech Design Studio course at HGSE