Buio is a phygital toy designed for helping kids between 3 and 5 years old to overcome the fear of the dark.

The key concept of the project is to transform a problem into an opportunity, and turn the dark environment from a scary obstacle into a brand new world of possibilities.

The system is made up of a physical egg that works as a controller for the game, while all the prompts and the storytelling are contents of the digital application.

The main character is BUIO, the darkness, that is scared of the daylight and goes to a dark cave to play with some “monsters”. In this way, the kids emphatize with the dark and start to see it as friendly element, and if they enjoy the game, they will start to put themselves into a dark environment intentionally, to explore its wonders.

My colleagues and me, worked hard to understand the principles of usability for kids, as they are a target that needs a particular amount of attention on details. Before the end of the project we have been able to test it a lot with the final users, iterate and refine.

Buio has been showcased at EIT Digital Conference 2018 in Bruxelles and at MeetMeTonight in Milan