Parental Controls for Safer Online Experience
Implementation of Parental Control feature on Sony One App.
About the project:
Designing a user-friendly Parental Control feature to manage screen time and content, alongside a rebrand to enhance the app’s overall experience.
Stakeholders:
Product Designers
Android Developers
iOS Developers
Testers
Engineers
Timeline:
6 Months
Initial Problem at Sony One
Sony’s streaming app lacked customisable Parental Controls features, such as the ability to restrict specific content genres or set viewing time limits.
As a result, parents were concerned about inappropriate content and were hesitant to let their children use the service, leading to lower engagement from family users.
How can we make this easy for parents and ensure seamless integration with the app?
Project Overview
The client requested a custom parental control feature to help parents manage and restrict content for their children. The design process will involve research on best practices, user needs, and creating an intuitive interface for a seamless experience.
Additionally, I leveraged this opportunity to address a rebranding of the app and resolve other key UX issues.
Conducted a kickoff meeting with the client to understand their goals, user needs, and existing pain points.
Role: Led the meeting to gather requirements and align on key functionalities for the parental control feature.
Teams: Worked with the client and project stakeholders.
Client’s Brief
Conducted research, created user flows and prototypes, User Testing and incorporated feedback from dev and testers.
Role: Led the meeting, gathered requirements, conducted a survey, and designed the prototypes and final UI.
Teams: Worked closely with researchers, testers and developers.
Parental Controls Implementation
Proposed a rebrand alongside the parental control feature, improving the app's overall user experience.
Role: Led the rebrand strategy with the client, creating new designs and made UX adjustments to enhance usability.
Teams: Worked with the client, developers and testers.
App Rebrand and UX Adjustments
Parent-Focused Parental Control Design
Parental control features are crucial for online safety. By focusing on user insights and parental priorities, we aim to design a solution that balances security, flexibility, and ease of use.
Research Process
Competitive Analysis
Reviewed parental control features in apps like Netflix and YouTube Kids to identify common functionalities.
User Insights
Conducted interviews with parents using UsabilityHub to understand their specific needs.
Parent Priorities
Identified key priorities: intuitive settings, time limits, and content blocking for a tailored, user-friendly experience.
Parental Controls Implementation
Implementing the parental control feature requires a seamless integration with the existing app design, balancing functionality and ease of use while aligning with Sony One's design standards.
Challenges
Ensuring consistency across devices and screen sizes for the flow.
Feature will have to adapt with the existing app seamlessly.
My Approach
Keep the parents in mind by ensuring the flow is simple, intuitive, and easy to navigate.
Ensure a straightforward experience, with intuitive controls and a simple, user-friendly flow.
User Testing
After testing the prototype with users, their feedback helped shape and refine the Parental Controls feature for a smoother experience.
My Responsibilities
Created interactive prototypes for mobile user testing.
Analysed feedback to improve usability and flow.
Adjusted design based on mobile feedback, ensuring compatibility with TV and web.
Ensuring design consistency while adapting to technical constraints
Parental Controls Flow
User taps the Settings icon, signaling the beginning of the parental control setup process.
Position the Parental Controls option clearly within the settings, ensuring it's easily accessible within the overall layout.
Guide the user to the Create PIN action. I have partnered with Content Design to write the content on this screen.
User enters a new 4-digit PIN to complete the reset.
User receives confirmation that the PIN has been successfully reset.
link-to-prototype.
Parental Controls Flow - Forgotten PIN
User taps 'Forgot PIN?' to begin the recovery process.
User is asked to enter their registered email address to verify identity.
Once the user clicks the link in the email, they’re taken directly back to the app.
User enters a new 4-digit PIN to complete the reset.
User receives confirmation that the PIN has been successfully reset.
Parental Controls Flow - Time Restriction
Added a Set Screen Time button.
User selects a preset time limit (e.g., 15 min) or taps 'Custom Time' for a different duration.
User sees confirmation of the selected screen time limit.
User enters a new 4-digit PIN to complete the reset.
User receives confirmation that the PIN has been successfully reset.
Developers Feedback (Accessibility Improvements)
PIN Input Error Feedback:
On Web, users can accidentally type letters instead of numbers when creating a 4-digit PIN. Since only numbers are allowed, this causes confusion, and the system doesn’t provide immediate feedback to indicate the mistake.
Solutions:
Implemented an input mask that only allows numeric input and blocks letters.
Added real-time feedback (e.g., red border, "Only numbers are allowed") to help users correct mistakes immediately.
Before Feedback:
Only numbers can be entered, but the user is unaware of this limitation as there is no visual feedback or error message.
After Feedback:
Displayed a red border around the input field when users type letters.
Showed a "Numbers only" message to alert users about the error.
What We Expect with Parental Controls
What we expect from introducing a Parental Control feature on an existing product:
Market Appeal & Customer Retention:
Studies show that 70% of parents use or want parental controls on digital devices.
Parents are increasingly concerned about their children's online safety.
Offering parental controls can increase customer acquisition and retention by catering to this demand.
Fewer Screen Time Complaints & Higher Retention:
Time limits are expected to reduce screen time-related support requests by 15%, while giving parents control will increase retention by improving their confidence in managing app usage.
What’s Next?
Launch the feature to 10% of users and monitor engagement to assess usage.
Collect feedback to uncover pain points and identify areas for improvement.
Iterate based on insights to enhance the feature in future releases post-MVP.
Rebranding
Implementing the parental control feature requires a seamless integration with the existing app design, balancing functionality and ease of use while aligning with Sony One's design standards.
Challenges:
Ensuring the client’s chosen colours, fonts, and styles align with the app’s design system for smooth implementation by developers.
Balancing the new design with user familiarity to avoid disrupting established behaviour.
Ensuring the new design is fully responsive across different devices and screen sizes.
Sony One Principle Design Elements
Integration New Design Elements
Logos & Icon
Only numbers can be entered, but the user is unaware of this limitation as there is no visual feedback or error message.
Font & Images
Simplified layout with minimal text, featuring updated thumbnails for better visual appeal, clear hierarchy, and seamless browsing.
Icons
Updated design with icons for improved visual appeal, clearer hierarchy, and easier navigation.
UX Improvement 1 - Search Page
Based on user feedback, I identified the absence of filters and designed a solution to address this gap.
Challenges:
Understanding what type of solution to find for the confusion while searching for content.
Making improvements without altering the core design.
My Responsibilities:
Find creative solutions when customisations are limited to meet user and brand needs.
Adapt design elements to fit the existing system.
Before Feedback:
Only numbers can be entered, but the user is unaware of this limitation as there is no visual feedback or error message.
After Feedback:
I added filter options (e.g., movie, series, episode) below the search bar, making it easy for users to refine results.
UX Improvement 2 - Cast Section
User feedback from Research showed that users struggled to discover new content, because they would not remember the titles of the movie but names of the actors.
Challenges:
Making improvements without altering the core design.
Designing an intuitive and clean UI that prioritises clarity.
My Responsibilities:
Analysing client feedback and understanding the need for change
Updating designs and prototypes to reflect the changes.
Content Detail Page: Before
The content detail page previously featured only a "Related" playlist below the movie details, limiting options for users to discover additional content.
Content Detail Page: After
After client feedback, a "Cast" playlist was added, giving users easier access to films featuring the same cast, the user can now click on the cast and see the movies
Thank you!