NOVA
AR road safety glasses for children
Project Type
Professional
Timeline
2025.2 - 2025.8
Collaborated with
2 Designers
My Responsibilities
Research, Prototype, Testing
CONTEXT
Exploring child-centered mobility design for a sustainable future
This milestone project was developed in collaboration between CCA and the UNICEF Innovation Node. We worked closely with Meg McLaughlin, Innovation Specialist at the Node, receiving feedback throughout the process to guide and refine our direction.
The UNICEF Innovation Node is a specialized hub within UNICEF that focuses on early-stage ideas and prototypes, partnering with designers and technologists to explore scalable solutions. Through this partnership, we investigated how human-centered design can create safer, more inclusive mobility systems for children over the next 3 to 10 years.
PROBLEM
Balancing independence and safety in child mobility
Children want the freedom to move through cities on their own, but face risks such as traffic hazards, unfamiliar routes, and limited situational awareness. Parents, meanwhile, want to encourage independence but struggle with fear and the need for reassurance. Existing navigation and tracking tools are either not designed for children or feel intrusive, leaving a gap for solutions that can both empower children and comfort parents.
SOLUTION
AR guidance for children, safety controls for parents
We designed Nova, an AR glasses system paired with a mobile companion app, to make children’s independent mobility safer and more confidence-building.
For children
The AR glasses provide simple HUD text, responsive navigation guidelines, and a friendly mascot that guides them safely while encouraging awareness.
For parents
The companion app allows setup of child profiles, emergency contacts, and safe zones. Parents receive real-time alerts if their child steps outside the boundary, offering reassurance without constant surveillance.
RESEARCH
Scope of the Challenge
To better understand the context of independent child mobility, we reviewed global data on road safety and parental concerns:
Global burden
Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children ages 5–19, with nearly 220,000 lives lost every year — over 600 each day. These incidents disproportionately affect children in low- and middle-income countries where road safety infrastructure is limited.
Preventable injuries
More than 1,600 children and adolescents die daily from preventable injuries, and traffic crashes remain the single largest contributor. Many of these deaths are linked to unsafe walking conditions, poor visibility, and lack of protective infrastructure near schools and residential areas.
Parental concerns
In the U.S., one in five parents have never allowed their teen to travel alone, even for short trips. Parents cite traffic dangers, unfamiliar routes, and potential abductions, underscoring the tension between fostering independence and ensuring safety.
RESEARCH
Grounding the design in real experiences
To design a child-centered navigation system, we immersed ourselves in both expert discussions and everyday family experiences. We attended Riding for Change: Labor & Transit Equity and Robotaxis and AI: Navigating Mobility Innovation and the Public Good at UC Berkeley, and we joined the San Francisco Summer Resource Fair to connect directly with parents and children. Alongside these engagements, we conducted parent interviews and facilitated co-creation workshops.
From this process, we uncovered three key insights:
Parents seek reassurance while children strive for independence, creating an ongoing tension in mobility decisions.
System-level changes such as policy updates or infrastructure upgrades are slow and uncertain, which pushes families to look for immediate, practical solutions they can adopt in daily life.
Rapid advances in technology are opening new possibilities for tools that could reshape child mobility by balancing safety, independence, and engagement.
RESEARCH
Evaluating potential solutions
Building on these insights, we compared potential approaches such as GPS trackers, mobile apps, transit training, and community escorts. While each offered partial solutions, none fully balanced safety with independence.
This led us to focus on Navigation AR Glasses. Although not yet feasible for production, advances in AR, language models, and hardware are reducing costs and expanding accessibility. AR glasses represent a forward-looking vision for how technology could better unite safety and independence while opening new opportunities for child mobility.
IDEATION
Design opportunity
How might we design AR glasses that guide children safely in public spaces, balance independence with parental reassurance, and remain simple and engaging enough for everyday use?
DESIGN
Success Metrics
To guide the development of the Navigation AR Glasses, we defined clear metrics that balance children’s independence with parental reassurance. These focus on building confidence, ensuring safety, and encouraging exploration while keeping both children and parents at ease.
Child navigation confidence
Children feel more capable and secure when navigating public spaces independently.
Parental reassurance
Parents gain peace of mind knowing their child is supported and monitored within safe boundaries.
Safety incident reduction
Fewer risks and accidents occur as children are better guided and more aware of their surroundings.
Independence encouragement
Children develop autonomy by exploring safely without constant parental oversight.
DESIGN CHALLENGE 1
Presenting information clearly without overwhelming the user
I researched different types of AR text displays and evaluated their suitability for this project. Based on that study, I chose HUD text as the primary approach because it keeps essential details like distance, estimated time, and alerts in fixed positions, making them stable and always visible without blocking the main view.
“I want my child to get directions, but not so much text that they lose focus on the road.”
For navigation guidance, I integrated responsive elements that adapt to user movement, while keeping text anchored in fixed locations to ensure readability. This combination strikes a balance between clarity and stability, enabling children to access critical information without feeling overwhelmed.
DESIGN CHALLENGE 2
Balancing safety with independence
At first, we focused mainly on the child’s view, designing AR glasses to guide kids with navigation cues and hazard alerts. But testing showed this wasn’t enough—parents still felt anxious. They wanted alerts, SOS triggers, and reassurance beyond what the child saw, so we expanded the system to include a parent-facing layer of notifications and controls.
“I need to know if my child goes beyond where it’s safe, so I can step in when needed.”
This shift transformed the concept from a child-only tool into a paired system where parents and children onboard together. Children receive simple, encouraging guidance through the glasses, building confidence to navigate more independently, while parents manage safe zones, alerts, and emergency options in the companion app, giving them the reassurance they need.
DESIGN CHALLENGE 3
Making the experience engaging without distraction
A key challenge was keeping the AR interface simple enough for children to follow while still engaging. Minimal colors and clean visuals reduced distractions but risked feeling too plain.
To address this, we introduced Nova, a friendly mascot. Nova means “new star,” symbolizing guidance and growth, while also aligning with UNICEF’s mission to support children. With strong color contrast, playful clarity, and a reassuring presence, Nova makes the experience engaging without overwhelming kids or distracting from their surroundings.
“If it’s too plain my kid won’t use it, but if it’s too flashy they’ll miss what’s important.”
USABILITY TESTING
Iterative feedback to refine the experience
Over a one-month prototype sprint, we tested with 20 parents, sometimes together with their children. Their feedback on navigation clarity, safety features, and usability guided key refinements to the AR glasses and companion app, making the system more practical, child-friendly, and reassuring for parents.
Major problems solved from usability feedback
Simplified navigation cues by clarifying text, icons, and language.
Strengthened safety with alerts, SOS functions, and danger warnings.
Improved the companion app with easier onboarding, safe zone setup, and parent–child contact options.
Reduced visual clutter so children could focus on key guidance.
Refined hardware concept toward thinner, more child-friendly glasses.
FINAL DELIVERABLES
Companion App Onboarding
Through the companion app, parents connect the AR glasses, create a child profile, add emergency contacts, and define safety zones such as home or school. Once setup is complete, they can monitor their child’s location in real time and receive instant alerts if the child leaves a designated safe area, ensuring independent yet secure navigation.
AR Glasses Onboarding
The AR glasses onboarding introduces kids to using Nova through simple, voice-based interactions. Guided prompts teach them how to start navigation with a wake phrase, clearly state destinations, and follow Nova’s real-time directions. Kids also learn they can call for help at any time, ensuring both independence and safety during their journeys.
Navigation Mode
Navigation mode for the AR glasses guides kids step by step to school using voice commands and clear visual cues. Children can start their trip with simple prompts, choose their destination, and follow safe, turn-by-turn directions enhanced with contextual alerts like construction zones or traffic lights. Along the way, progress updates and friendly characters keep the journey engaging, and kids are celebrated when they safely arrive at school.
Freedom Mode
In Freedom Mode, the AR glasses give kids more independence while still ensuring safety, offering gentle reminders and alerts as they explore. The system warns when leaving a safe area, discourages unsafe interactions, and guides them to safe places when needed. With step-by-step navigation and positive reinforcement, children gain confidence moving around on their own while parents remain reassured.
REFLECTION
This project showed us the power of combining speculative design with real-world insights. Engaging with parents and children gave us a deeper understanding of the balance between safety, independence, and reassurance, while prototyping highlighted the exciting potential of AR navigation. We came to see technology not as the final answer, but as a powerful platform to inspire education and long-term skill building.
Looking ahead, our collaboration with UNICEF Innovation Node emphasized that child mobility is not just a family concern but a global opportunity to advance equity and access. The current system uses voice control for intuitive interaction, and future exploration can expand to hand gesture interaction to create even more natural and engaging experiences. As AR, language models, and hardware continue to advance, we see the opportunity to shape this into an educational mobility service that builds resilience, confidence, and independence for children worldwide.
"The projects you all put together were so thoughtful- the time you took to conduct the interviews, do the research, and design the solutions was a really fun process to see. We learned a lot! "
— Meg McLaughlin, Innovation Specialist, UNICEF Innovation Node
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