True Buddy : A Design Concept to Enhance Child Engagement, Self-Regulation, and Parent-Child Collaboration in Digital Parenting Apps
Marimuthu, Shobana (2025)
2025
Master's Programme in Computing Sciences and Electrical Engineering
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2025-06-23
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202506127109
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202506127109
Tiivistelmä
Unregulated and excessive screen time among children has become a growing concern, often leading to issues in emotional well-being, digital safety, and family communication. While many parental control apps attempt to manage these challenges, they often focus heavily on restrictions and monitoring, offering limited support for children’s emotional engagement or for nurturing collaborative parent-child relationships. This thesis addresses this gap by proposing True Buddy, a design concept aimed at supporting emotional awareness, digital self-regulation, and shared decision-making between parents and children.
The aim of this research is to explore how parental control apps can be redesigned to better support children’s emotional development and to foster healthier, more transparent communication between parents and children. This goal is approached through a design-led methodology, beginning with a heuristic evaluation of 18 existing parental control applications. These apps were analyzed using a structured framework that focused on three key areas: children's engagement and emotional regulation, parent-child collaboration, and safety and risk detection. Insights were visualized and clustered using affinity mapping tools such as Miro and Apple Freeform to identify common limitations and overlooked opportunities in current app designs.
Based on these findings, True Buddy was conceptualized and prototyped in Figma, with a dual-interface system: one for children and another for parents. The child interface includes features like mood check-ins, and reward-based tasks to encourage self-reflection and active participation. The parent interface includes tools for monitoring, setting digital agreements, and emotional feedback tracking designed to support collaboration rather than control.
The prototype was evaluated through formative usability testing with 15 parents of children aged 5 to 15, from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds. Feedback was gathered using interviews and task-based testing to understand the prototype's ease of use, clarity, emotional impact, and perceived usefulness. The results showed strong appreciation for features that encouraged mutual trust, such as gamified emotion check-ins and shared goal setting. At the same time, areas for improvement were identified, particularly in simplifying navigation and clarifying the roles within the app.
This thesis contributes a new design approach for digital parenting tools by combining human-computer interaction (HCI) principles with psychological insights. It proposes a shift from surveillance-based parental control toward emotionally intelligent and participatory digital support. True Buddy stands as an example of how design can reframe digital parenting from control to companionship empowering both children and parents in managing their digital lives more meaningfully.
The aim of this research is to explore how parental control apps can be redesigned to better support children’s emotional development and to foster healthier, more transparent communication between parents and children. This goal is approached through a design-led methodology, beginning with a heuristic evaluation of 18 existing parental control applications. These apps were analyzed using a structured framework that focused on three key areas: children's engagement and emotional regulation, parent-child collaboration, and safety and risk detection. Insights were visualized and clustered using affinity mapping tools such as Miro and Apple Freeform to identify common limitations and overlooked opportunities in current app designs.
Based on these findings, True Buddy was conceptualized and prototyped in Figma, with a dual-interface system: one for children and another for parents. The child interface includes features like mood check-ins, and reward-based tasks to encourage self-reflection and active participation. The parent interface includes tools for monitoring, setting digital agreements, and emotional feedback tracking designed to support collaboration rather than control.
The prototype was evaluated through formative usability testing with 15 parents of children aged 5 to 15, from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds. Feedback was gathered using interviews and task-based testing to understand the prototype's ease of use, clarity, emotional impact, and perceived usefulness. The results showed strong appreciation for features that encouraged mutual trust, such as gamified emotion check-ins and shared goal setting. At the same time, areas for improvement were identified, particularly in simplifying navigation and clarifying the roles within the app.
This thesis contributes a new design approach for digital parenting tools by combining human-computer interaction (HCI) principles with psychological insights. It proposes a shift from surveillance-based parental control toward emotionally intelligent and participatory digital support. True Buddy stands as an example of how design can reframe digital parenting from control to companionship empowering both children and parents in managing their digital lives more meaningfully.