From the studio notebook
Journal
Here we write about what we learn making worlds for kids: the craft, the safety, and the distance between a first scribble and a launched experience.
Showing 23 articles
Knowledge· · 9 min read· The Dawani team
How does a nonprofit measure a children's program's impact? From theory of change to the donor report
From a theory of change to a mandatory guardrail indicator to a donor report speaking of outcomes, not only activities: how a nonprofit honestly measures a childhood program.
Read ◆Knowledge· · 7 min read· The Dawani team
How does an investor vet a children's product? Twelve axes before any decision
Vetting a children's product differs from a regular one across twelve axes, from real child need to evidence quality. An ordered list to help ask the right question, with no investment advice.
Read ◆The craft· · 8 min read· The Dawani team
Arabic first is not translating the screen: what changes when an experience is designed in Arabic from the root?
Translating a screen swaps words and leaves the structure untouched. Arabic first means designing sound, rhythm, names and humor from the first sketch, not carrying them over once finished.
Read ◆The craft· · 7 min read· The Dawani team
Retention without addiction: can a children's product succeed without a child's inability to stop?
A children's product can hold its audience two ways: value a child returns to by choice, or a design that makes stopping hard. We separate the two, with an alternative to each addictive trick.
Read ◆Knowledge· · 7 min read· The Dawani team
Why an awareness campaign is not enough to change a child's behaviour: from knowing to transfer
Watching and knowing do not mean behaviour changed. Seven stages from knowledge to transfer, each with one design move and indicator, for government and nonprofit buyers.
Read ◆Child safety· · 6 min read· The Dawani team
What makes a parent trust a children's product? Eight questions a team can score itself on
Eight questions about real names, ads, chat, purchases, autoplay, data deletion and purpose transparency: the Parent Trust Index, a Dawani framework, not a survey result.
Read ◆The craft· · 6 min read· The Dawani team
Writing an RFP for a children's product: twenty-five clauses an ordinary app tender lacks
A children's product RFP needs fourteen clause groups an ordinary app tender lacks: safeguarding, privacy, testing with children, guardrail indicators, session end, success criteria, and more.
Read ◆Child safety· · 7 min read· The Dawani team
AI tutor or AI friend? A small difference in the name, a large one in the risk
Tutor, story character, companion, coach, or search assistant: five AI roles in a child's life that look similar but differ sharply in memory, persuasion, and epistemic authority.
Read ◆Child safety· · 7 min read· The Dawani team
Does a children's app actually need an account?
Before asking how to protect a child's data, ask why it was collected at all. One decision tree per data field settles what to drop, lighten, or send to a lawyer.
Read ◆Child safety· · 7 min read· The Dawani team
Why is time in app the riskiest success metric for a children's product?
Time in app, session length and daily active users were built for products that sell attention, and can work against a child's interest when copied without a second thought.
Read ◆The craft· · 7 min read· The Dawani team
How do you turn a broad outcome into an experience a child lives?
A goal like \"raising savings awareness\" describes no behaviour we can observe in a child. We translate it into a behaviour, a situation, a mechanic, a success metric and a guardrail, in that order.
Read ◆Knowledge· · 8 min read· The Dawani team
How many hours on the screen, or what happened inside the hour?
The usual question is how many hours a child spent on a screen. The sharper question is what happened inside that hour: creating, moving, talking, learning, or endless passive consumption.
Read ◆Knowledge· · 6 min read· The Dawani team
Ten questions to ask before commissioning a studio for a children's experience
Ten questions about the goal, the measure, safety, consent, ownership and what happens after launch, that reveal more about a studio than a pitch deck before you commission a children's experience.
Read ◆Knowledge· · 8 min read· The Dawani team
The edutainment glossary: the terms that recur in every project
Fifteen terms we use across most of our projects, from the storyboard to the guardrail metric: one definition each, and one line on where it shows up inside a real children's experience.
Read ◆Child safety· · 6 min read· The Dawani team
How parents can judge a children's app
Five questions any parent can answer within minutes of opening an app for their child: its data, its reward loop, its ads, the parent's role in it, and how a session ends.
Read ◆The craft· · 7 min read· The Dawani team
How we run a test session with real children
Consent before the session, observation during it, a design change after. What a genuine test session with children means, not a prototype demo followed by writing down a smile.
Read ◆The craft· · 7 min read· The Dawani team
App, game, or real-world experience? How we choose the shape
We start from the goal and the age, not a fashionable shape. Here is what separates an app a child returns to daily, a game that tests a rule, and a real-world experience with no screen at its core.
Read ◆Knowledge· · 6 min read· The Dawani team
The Arabic childhood content gap: five gaps, not one
Arabic is about 0.6% of measured web content. But closing that number alone reproduces the five gaps standing behind it: originality, early childhood, language, safety, and measurement.
Read ◆The craft· · 6 min read· The Dawani team
Measuring impact with adolescents: what may honestly be claimed?
An adolescent will please whoever asks, or boycott the tool entirely. That is why we separate what a program can honestly measure from what it cannot claim.
Read ◆Child safety· · 6 min read· The Dawani team
Beyond screens: how we design for early childhood
Designing beyond screens is not less technology. It changes course: from a screen facing the child alone to voice and touch that pass through the parent, guided by four principles.
Read ◆Child safety· · 6 min read· The Dawani team
Designing a safe digital experience for children: less data, no addiction loops, a clear role for parents
Three safety commitments translated into concrete design decisions: which data is never collected, which mechanics are never used, and how a session is designed to end well.
Read ◆The craft· · 6 min read· The Dawani team
What edutainment actually means, and why it is not a lesson in a costume
A working definition of edutainment, how it differs from a gamified lesson, what each age band from 4 to 17 actually needs, and the questions to ask before commissioning one.
Read ◆The craft· · 6 min read· The Dawani team
From scribble to launch: how an idea is born at Dawani
Every idea here passes through five stages: spark, storyboard, gray prototype, kid test, launch. Here is what happens inside each one, and why the order matters more than the labels.
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