Crayola
Designing Connected Creative Play Systems for Children
How do you design play systems that sustain engagement, encourage creativity, and connect physical and digital experiences over time?
Overview
At Crayola, I worked on two connected creative play systems:
Crayola Create & Play — a subscription-based creative platform with ongoing content expansion
Scribble Scrubbie Pets — a free companion experience connected to a physical toy ecosystem
Rather than designing isolated features, my focus was on defining the interaction and engagement systems that shaped how children played over time across both products.
This included designing core play loops, progression and reward systems, onboarding flows, and long-term content structures. I also owned the creative reward layer of the progression system and the content roadmap that supported ongoing engagement.
Across both products, I collaborated with product, engineering, Customer Insights, and content teams, and extended the experience into physical environments through work with the Crayola Experience team.
Core Challenge
Children engage strongly with creative experiences, but engagement declines quickly when:
content becomes familiar
progression is unclear
onboarding slows access to play
systems fail to evolve over time
At the same time, the products needed to balance:
immediate playability for children
long-term engagement through progression
ethical and trust-conscious subscription design
seamless connection between physical and digital play
The challenge was not to design individual features, but to design systems that could sustain engagement, curiosity, and creative exploration over time.
My Role
Game Designer • Interactive Systems Designer • UX Designer
System Ownership Areas
Core play loop design (exploration → creation → reward → return)
Progression and reward systems
Creative reward content layer (unlockable system content)
UX flows, onboarding, and tutorial systems
Long-term content roadmap and seasonal release strategy
Interactive activity design and replay systems
Physical–digital interaction system design (Scribble Scrubbie)
Usability testing synthesis with Customer Insights
Cross-medium experience extension (Crayola Experience exhibits)
Designing for Immediate Access to Play
Challenge
Usability testing revealed that children consistently wanted to enter activities as quickly as possible. Any friction in onboarding or navigation reduced engagement and led to early drop-off.
This created a key design constraint:
How do you guide children effectively without slowing down access to play?
Solution
I designed onboarding and activity entry systems that prioritized immediate engagement with minimal instructional friction.
Activities were made directly accessible from the home experience
Learning was embedded into interaction rather than front-loaded instruction
Onboarding became contextual and progressive rather than linear
The system was designed so children learned by doing, not by reading or being instructed.
Outcome
This reduced friction in early sessions and improved engagement by allowing children to immediately enter creative play.
Designing Engagement Through
Progression and Reward Systems
Challenge
While initial engagement was strong, children often stopped returning once activities became familiar.
The key question was:
How do you sustain engagement in a system built around repeatable creative play?
Solution
I designed a progression system where continued creative engagement directly shaped what children unlocked over time.
In Create & Play, children unlocked eggs that evolved into new pets
In Scribble Scrubbie Pets, progression enabled access to additional collectible pets
I also owned the design of the creative reward content layer, defining what children unlocked and ensuring rewards reinforced exploration rather than transactional completion.
Outcome
This created a sustained engagement loop:
explore → create → unlock → return
Progression became a natural extension of creative behavior rather than a separate reward structure.
Designing Replayable Creative Activities
Challenge
Individual activities needed to function both as:
first-time discovery experiences
and repeatable creative tools over time
Early designs tended to lose engagement after initial use.
Solution
I designed activities as exploratory systems rather than linear tasks.
Each activity was structured to:
support open-ended creative outcomes
encourage experimentation over completion
allow repeated use with variation in results
integrate naturally into the broader progression system
The goal was to design for sustained exploration rather than one-time success.
Outcome
Activities became part of a reusable creative toolkit that supported long-term engagement across sessions.
Designing Connected Physical–Digital Play
Challenge
Scribble Scrubbie Pets existed as a physical toy ecosystem, but the digital experience initially operated separately.
The challenge was:
How do you translate physical ownership into meaningful digital interaction for children?
Solution
I co-designed a scan-to-unlock system that connected physical toys to digital identity.
Children scanned their physical Scribble Scrubbie pets
Scans unlocked corresponding digital characters
Digital pets could then be customized and interacted with
This system ensured that physical ownership directly shaped the digital experience.
Outcome
The experience extended the value of the physical toy and created a continuous loop between physical play and digital interaction.
Designing a Living Content System
Challenge
To sustain long-term engagement, the experience needed to continuously evolve without disrupting the core system.
The key question was:
How do you introduce new content over time while preserving familiarity and usability?
Solution
I owned the long-term content roadmap, defining monthly releases and seasonal updates that introduced new creative experiences into the system.
To support this, we structured:
scalable activity frameworks
repeatable interaction patterns
integrated content pipelines (including video-based experiences)
This allowed the system to evolve without requiring structural redesign.
Outcome
The product functioned as a living content system, continuously expanding while maintaining a stable core experience.