UGP HOME LEARNING KIT

Designing for Play & Learning

Transforming a complex early childhood education curriculum into an engaging, interactive, and accessible at-home learning adventure for parents and children.

The Urban Griot Playground (UGP) is an ongoing design-based research initiative exploring how rhythm, music, and movement can enhance early literacy and STEAM skills for children ages 3–6. Originally developed as a technology-driven family workshop series, UGP continues to evolve through iterative cycles of design, testing, and refinement.

The UGP Home Learning Kit was created to extend and reinforce learning beyond workshop sessions. Initially developed to support at-home learning through embodied, multimodal activities, the kit has since evolved into a foundational tool for implementing the UGP curriculum across diverse contexts. This case study focuses on the early development phase—specifically, the challenge of adapting a facilitator-led curriculum for independent use by families.

CLIENTS & AFFILIATES

Urban Griot Collaborative
Center for Design, Northeastern University

PROJECT TEAM

Jane Effanga
Pierre Valerie Tchetgen, PhD,
Estefania Ciliotta Chehade, MFA

YEAR

FALL 2023

MY ROLE

As the lead designer and strategist during the early development of the UGP Home Learning Kit, I led the end-to-end design of the experience. I introduced the quest-driven learning framework and narrative structure, framing learning domains as “camps” and activities as “quests” to create a cohesive, story-based progression. I developed the visual language and symbolic notation system to represent learning styles and activity types, and designed the layout and information architecture of the quest cards for clarity, instructional depth, and ease of use. I also ideated developmentally aligned activities, built physical prototypes, and facilitated co-design sessions with stakeholders to evaluate and refine the experience.

CHALLENGE

Redesigning a facilitator-led curriculum for independent home use...

The Urban Griot Playground curriculum was originally designed for in-person workshops, where trained facilitators guided activities, and researchers could directly observe and gather data. While effective for engagement and insight, this format limited the reach of both the learning experience and the research itself. Extending UGP’s multimodal learning approach into the home raised new questions: How could families facilitate learning without prior training? How could researchers gather meaningful data when no longer physically present? And how could the rich cultural and pedagogical framework of UGP be preserved across varied, uncontrolled settings?

Designing the Home Learning Kit meant reimagining the entire experience—not just for children and their caregivers, but also for the integrity of the research. It had to be engaging and intuitive enough for independent use, yet structured and consistent enough to support data collection and preserve the fidelity of the curriculum.

INSIGHTS

Children engage deeply through play, story, and imagination

Activities that tap into imagination, like pretend play, storytelling, and rhythmic movement, create stronger cognitive and emotional connections for early learners.

Effective at-home learning requires a low barrier to entry

To empower parents or caregivers to guide learning, the system has to be easy to understand and use—clear instructions, minimal setup, and intuitive design are non-negotiable.

Consistent structure supports reliable data collection

To preserve the integrity of the research, the learning experience needs to follow a standardized structure—allowing for comparable data to be collected across unmoderated home settings.

Clarity of information is essential for independent use

For families to use the kit without facilitation, all instructions and activity components needed to be easily understood at a glance—supporting both learning and implementation.

To understand the needs of our core users and reveal the specific challenges the design needed to address, I conducted focused research that included reviewing literature on early childhood development and multimodal learning, analyzing Institutional Review Board (IRB) feedback, and engaging in co-design sessions and conversations with stakeholders.

SOLUTION

Learning through Play.

We reimagined the UGP learning kit as a quest-based adventure. Learners journey across UGP Adventure Island, traveling through “camps” that represent key learning domains from the curriculum, such as rhythm, alphabets, and vocabulary.

Within each camp are three stations: Circle, Construction, and Digital. These stations correspond to UGP’s triadic learning modes: embodied, experiential, and digital, respectively. Embodied learning focuses on rhythm and movement; experiential learning emphasizes tactile, hands-on activities; and digital learning leverages interactive technology.

Each camp includes a set of quests, which are learning activities designed to build specific target skills. Learners complete quests across all three stations before moving on, creating a structured, playful, and multimodal progression through the learning journey.

Structure of the UGP Learning Experience

I. Learning Camps

To make the curriculum intuitive and easy to follow, we introduced the concept of “learning camps” on the UGP Adventure Island, each one representing a core learning domain such as Alphabet, Vocabulary, or Identity. These camps give learners a clear sense of where they are in their journey, make abstract goals feel concrete and thematic, and allow us to group and track target skills more effectively. For both families and researchers, the camp model reinforces the adventure metaphor—providing a roadmap that keeps progress visible, purposeful, and engaging.

II. Stations

The UGP Triadic Framework, which emphasizes multimodal learning across three key modes—embodied, experiential, and digital—is brought to life within each camp through the concept of stations. The Circle Station supports embodied learning through rhythm and movement, the Construction Station encourages hands-on exploration, and the Digital Station integrates interactive technology to build digital literacy. Together, these stations offer a balanced structure that enables children to engage with content in varied and developmentally meaningful ways.

III. Quest Activities

The quest activities concept translates the UGP curriculum into manageable, trackable mini-activities. Anchored within the kit’s adventure structure, these “Quests” are interactive tasks carefully designed to reinforce target skills within each learning domain. To support clear implementation and rhythmic consistency, two core tools were created: Quest Cards and Concept Cards

a. Quest Cards

Quest Cards outline individual learning activities in a concise, structured way. Each card clearly states the activity’s objectives, required materials, step-by-step instructions, and the skills being targeted, making it easy for parents or facilitators to guide children independently and effectively. The systematic design of the cards promotes clarity, accessibility, and a sense of progression through the curriculum.

b. Concept Cards

Concept Cards visually represent rhythmic encodings unique to each learning camp, translating core curriculum elements—letters, numbers, and words—into rhythmic sequences based on drum sounds. Each card uses simple symbolic notations (dot • for ‘tone’, dash – for ‘slap’, and cross x for ‘bass’) to capture and communicate these rhythmic patterns. This allows learners to independently engage with rhythm-based activities, clearly linking abstract curriculum concepts with concrete musical expressions.

IV. Visual and Information Design System

To support clarity and ease of use, I designed a visual system assigning distinct colors and icons to each learning camp. This approach helps learners intuitively recognize materials and activities associated with specific camps, simplifying their interaction with the kit. Using these visual cues across elements like the map, quest cards, and concept cards, supports smoother navigation and reinforces the overall structure of the learning journey.

PROTOYPING & CO-DESIGN

To bring the kit to life, I created early prototypes of the core components—quest cards, concept cards, and activity layouts—testing for usability, clarity, and engagement. I facilitated co-design sessions with key stakeholders including educators, designers, and researchers to collaboratively refine the experience. These sessions helped us gather valuable feedback on everything from instructional clarity to visual layout, guiding multiple iterations of the kit’s design.

PROJECT STATUS

The UGP Home Adventure Kit remains part of an ongoing research initiative. Since my involvement in the early design phase, the project has continued to evolve through iterative refinement and strategic planning. While the original goal was to support at-home learning, the adventure-based structure has since become central to how the UGP curriculum is being adapted across various contexts—including schools and community workshops. My work laid the foundation for translating the curriculum into a structure that could be implemented in research settings, with clear learning objectives, measurable outcomes, and tools designed for independent use.

Building on this foundation, the UGP team is now focused on expanding partnerships with daycare centers and early learning providers to implement the kit in real-world settings and begin the formal research phase.

REFLECTION AND TAKEAWAYS

This project pushed me to think across disciplines. I had to engage deeply with early childhood education, curriculum design, developmental psychology, and game mechanics—translating complex ideas into an intuitive learning system for children ages 3–6 and the adults supporting them at home.

One key constraint was not being able to test directly with children. Since this is a formal research study, testing with minors required IRB approval—approval that could only be secured after foundational materials were developed. As a result, early prototyping relied heavily on literature, stakeholder input, and co-design sessions with educators and design collaborators. This challenged me to adapt—gathering insights through indirect methods while still grounding decisions in research.

Ultimately, this experience expanded my ability to structure complex systems in playful, accessible ways. It reinforced the value of narrative as a tool for coherence and gave me a deeper lens for approaching multi-layered design problems.