Paramount+
Content Discovery & Kids Voice Commands
Content Design Team
Product Design Intern
Jun - Aug 2023
Figma, Wireframing, User Testing, Prototyping, Voice UI
PROJECT SUMMARY
Internship Overview
In the summer of 2023, I interned at Paramount+ on the Content Design Team.
During my 10-week internship, I worked on a feature to help kids (ages 3-7) discover content that they want to watch, improving user engagement and retention.
In addition, I had the opportunity to work with a talented team of product designers and managers to deliver user flows and prototypes for content discovery on TV and mobile app platforms.
My Impact & Contributions
Working alongside other product designers, engineers, PMs, brands, and 3D artists, I made the following key contributions:
1
Created the first voice-enabled flow for kids on Paramount+, designing interaction models, visual cues, and error recovery patterns so 3–7 year olds could independently request shows using remotes.
2
Delivered cross-platform prototypes (Roku, FireTV, iOS) that adapted voice flows to each platform’s constraints, helping engineering scope feasibility and shaping the first MVP roadmap for voice-driven discovery.
3
Revamped the mobile app details page to address high drop-off rates, rethinking page hierarchy, action placement, and content previews to better guide users into playback.
CONTEXT
Paramount+ Kids Experience
Paramount+’s Kids Mode allows parents to create a separate profile for their child with a personalized viewing experience and the ability to manage their child’s watch content. These profiles display kids content only and limit searching/browsing abilities.
💡
Despite having a tailored Kids Mode with simplified navigation and character carousels, many younger kids (ages 3-7) still face difficulty discovering content on Paramount’s TV platform.
"Mommm! I Need Help!"
Kids Can't Easily Navigate and Find Content
For any parent, this may sound all too familiar, especially when it’s their 3-year-old trying to navigate to Dora the Explorer on a confusing TV screen. Parent and kid users face a couple big problems when it comes to finding content to watch on Paramount’s OTT platforms.
😤 USER PAINPOINT
Younger kids struggle to navigate Paramount+ on their own due to TV remote constraints and reading comprehension limitations.
🤩 USER GOAL
Parents expect their child's experience to be intuitive enough to not need parental assistance. They want the app to be:
Easy to explore
Easy to find content of interest
Easy to start watching
The existing Kids Profile uses features like the Character Carousel to appeal to kids. However…
Character carousel lacks prompts and guidance
It's difficult to find content of interest quickly
Parents who co-view to help navigate don’t create separate kids profiles
Why is this important for Paramount?
🤩 IMPACT ON THE BUSINESS
Parents don’t feel the need to create a separate kids profile if they are navigating for the child anyways, reducing retention rates of parent and kid users.
THE CHALLENGE
How might we empower younger children to find content they’re interested in on their own?
RESEARCH
I started with analyzing competitor streaming platforms.
My goal was to see what currently works and doesn't work with kids on popular streaming platforms like Disney+, Netflix, etc. I found a few key takeaways:
😤 USER PAINPOINT
Many streaming platforms have Kids Mode features, but most of these interfaces still closely resemble the Parents Profiles, which require extensive remote activity.
Let's Understand Kid and Parent Users
To gain more granular insights on how kids interact with Paramount+ and how parents perceive their kids’ watching behaviors, I looked to parent survey insights. These were a few of the key findings:
1
Kids tend to be highly enthusiastic about characters and avatars.
Kids like the ability to set characters as their avatars, as it gives them a sense of independence, and they also tend to rewatch the same shows associated with their favorite characters.
2
Voice assisted search is desired by parents of younger children.
For kids who don’t have the capacity to navigate via remote or search via keyboards, voice search is a more kid-friendly option. Parents also want the search option to be easily accessible, throughout the experience and across platforms.
IDEATION & ITERATION
My initial idea was to explore interactive cast pages for kids’ favorite characters with voice interactions.
Given how much kids love characters, I hypothesized that adding pages for characters with character-specific episode playlists, fun facts, and voice/sound effects will help kids find content through character engagement. This would ultimately increase video playbacks and content discovery.
Character-Driven Marquee & Voice Command Selection
Utilizing the existing character carousel on the home page, kids can choose their favorite character and either start watching or “Meet the Character”. The voice command feature is available for kids to speak their favorite character as well.
Interactive Character Page
When the user selects a character, they can learn more about the character, hear character voices/sound effects, find shows/movies featuring the character, and curated playlists. The user can connect with their favorite characters on a deeper level, finding new content.
Taking a Step Back… Is This the Most Impactful User Flow?
While the character page is a feasible addition to Paramount+’s existing detail/hub pages, I recognized that taking this path may be too distracting for users and take kids longer to start watching content.
To ground my decision making, I turned back to user data and research:
26%
of users prioritize an experience that will allow them to quickly find and start watching relevant content.
63%
of users ages 3-7 have a separate profile from their parents, but among them...
28%
have Kids Mode turned OFF
Some parents allow their kids to watch separately on their own profile, but many still do not have Kids Mode enabled, suggesting that parents may not understand the value of a Kids Profile.
More specifically, if Kids Mode is not providing an immediate benefit for parents and kids, parents will be unlikely to explore or utilize a kids profile for their child. In order to maintain/increase retention rates, I realized that...
I needed to pivot to a flow that brings more IMMEDIATE impact and guidance for content discovery.
REVISED HYPOTHESIS
Given kids’ love for characters, adding character-driven voice command functionality that guides users to character-specific video content will...
01
Facilitate easier navigation to discover relevant content that aligns with kids’ character interests
02
Improve kids’ personalization experience, allowing them to feel more independence, ownership, and satisfaction with their profile
While the initial character page concept utilizes voice and sound interactions, the focus of the flow is after the kid has already chosen a character of interest. I realized that providing navigation guidance earlier in the flow should be prioritized.
I explored an onboarding and home page flow that brings immediate voice guidance to users.
I concluded that incorporating voice tutorials and character guidance in the onboarding and homepage experience should be the focus of an MVP, as the parent and child will be able to see an immediate benefit to a kids profile.
DESIGN DECISIONS
Design Decision: How can we design a character-driven entry point that is easy to navigate?
My idea was to create a platform-wide guide character—something recognizable and approachable that could act as a companion throughout the product experience. That’s how Blobby was born…
Meet Blobby!
He helps guide kids to use their Kids Mode profile using voice and visual interacts.
He's very friendly and helpful 😄
Fun fact: we called him Blobby because of his simple, blob-like form that could flexibly represent emotions and actions without being tied to one specific persona.)
I explored multiple entry points for Blobby’s introduction…
Option 1: Home Page Entry Point
✅
Early, logical entry point
❌
Relies too heavily on reading comprehension, kids still might not know how t operate the remote
Option 2: Search Page Entry Point
✅
Character prompts are more prominent
❌
Slightly hidden, since search isn’t the first thing kids do
Final Decision: Ultimately, I designed Blobby’s introduction at the login/account creation moment. This is a natural point where kids are already engaging with the platform, so it became an opportunity for Blobby to:
Blobby can introduce himself in a fun, friendly way
Kids are offered a short tutorial on using the voice-enabled remote
✅
Kids can practice right away, ensuring they felt confident navigating afterward
Design Decision: Visual Design of Voice Search Characters
Another critical design choice was shaping how characters appear on the voice search page, where kids would interact through speech instead of clicks.
I tested three main directions for the character UI:
Option 1: Character Cards
✅
Resembles home-page carousel with fun and bright colors
❌
Looks clickable
Option 2: Character Circles
✅
Fun, bright colors
❌
Looks similar to profile pictures, looks clickable
Option 3: Character Glows (Final Design)
✅
Fun, bright colors and lower likelihood of attempted clicking
I chose the glow design because it aligned with the interaction model—it communicated “waiting for your voice” rather than “tap here.” This not only reduced potential usability errors but also created a more magical, responsive feel that fit the playful nature of the platform.
FINAL DESIGNS
Onboarding Tutorial: Lowering the barrier to voice for kids
After a parent creates a Kids Profile and enters the profile with their child, Blobby the Voice Assistant guides the user(s) through using voice commands. His voice narration allows younger kids to understand voice commands without relying on text, and the unique onboarding experience tailored towards a younger audience is fun and engaging.
Voice Search: Reducing parent intervention during content discovery
In the Kids Profile, users can press and hold the mic to activate Blobby and choose a character via voice. They also have the option to choose “Surprise Me”, where Blobby will randomly choose a character for them. They are directed to a start card where it will automatically start playing an episode after 10 seconds. This allows the watching experience to start quickly without any manual remote activity.
One major challenge I faced was a technical constraint:
THE OBSTACLE
Most TV platforms don’t allow overriding native voice UIs, which would make this character voice search feature difficult to implement.
MY DECISION
After discussing with engineers, I learned Roku was one of the few platforms flexible enough to support a custom overlay.
This insight guided my decision to prioritize a home-page voice solution on Roku — which represents 40% of Paramount+ users
Character Hubs: Deepening engagement and ownership for kids
If the user is interested in finding more content relating to their favorite character, they can view the characters’ hub page and discover a playlist of characters’ “favorite episodes” (or most popular episodes). They can learn fun facts about characters, set them as their avatar, and interact with character sound effects.
NEXT STEPS
If I Had More Time…
1
Design screens for 6-7 most popular Paramount+ characters
Crafting screens tailored for a select group of characters will allow the team to build out an MVP and efficiently validate the voice command concept.
2
Conduct A/B testing or in-person usability tests with parents and young kids
I’ve identified key moments where drop-off is most likely and drafted scenarios to test how kids engage with Blobby, use voice search, and hand off controls with parents. Next, I would validate these flows through A/B tests and structured in-person sessions to pinpoint friction points and refine command design.
3
Refine platform-specific constraints with developers
I’ve already aligned with Roku engineers on voice limitations and discussed workarounds for cross-platform parity. The next step would be to refine implementation details to ensure a consistent, delightful experience across Roku, Fire TV, and other platforms without losing design intent.
Future Opportunities
1
Design screens for 6-7 most popular Paramount+ characters
Crafting screens tailored for a select group of characters will allow the team to build out an MVP and efficiently validate the voice command concept.
2
Conduct A/B testing or in-person usability tests with parents and young kids
I’ve identified key moments where drop-off is most likely and drafted scenarios to test how kids engage with Blobby, use voice search, and hand off controls with parents. Next, I would validate these flows through A/B tests and structured in-person sessions to pinpoint friction points and refine command design.
3
Refine platform-specific constraints with developers
I’ve already aligned with Roku engineers on voice limitations and discussed workarounds for cross-platform parity. The next step would be to refine implementation details to ensure a consistent, delightful experience across Roku, Fire TV, and other platforms without losing design intent.
LEARNINGs
What I Learned Along the Way
I learned so much from my internship experience and had such a wonderful time!
In addition to building stronger design and prototyping skills, I stepped out of my comfort zone to explore voice UI design, tackled a challenge for an unfamiliar kids target audience, and most importantly, learned from so many talented designers!
Iterating on designs and concepts for mobile and TV platforms gave me great exposure to understanding important use cases and accessibility concerns, and working on live projects was such a fulfilling experience.
Here are some of my most important design takeaways:
💙
Pivoting concepts isn't failure. It's design evolution.
Through multiple iterations of the kids discovery concept, from a character page to a voice search, I learned that moving away from an initial idea isn’t wasted work. Each pivot strengthened the final direction and deepened my ability to adapt quickly without losing sight of the core user need.
💙
Unfamiliar users require extra imagination.
Designing for kids and parents forced me to question assumptions and build empathy from scratch. I learned that designing for unfamiliar groups demands not just research, but also stretching your imagination to anticipate behaviors that differ radically from your own.
💙
Exploring unfamiliar mediums pushes design growth.
Voice UI was outside my comfort zone, but diving into its patterns, constraints, and opportunities taught me how to extend my design toolkit beyond visuals and into new interaction models.
