BBC

Looking back I really had no idea what would come out of our time together. I had an itch that needed scratching and I was hopeful that following a process would lead us out of the fog. At the time I had two very talented designers working for me in Joe and Andy. Between us, we had such a good relationship that we would continually challenge and push each other. Their support early on was vital.

So we ran a series of workshops identifying the problems, rapidly generating lots and lots of post-its before looking for recurring themes which we dot voted.

We then turned these problems into a set of "How Might We?" From here we settled on the idea of having a set of design principles to communicate these ideas. The next challenge was a series of questions... Who would use it? Why would they use it? What is it that we are trying to say?

Originally these principles were conceptualised for Apps but it became clear they were something broader, more a set of principles for designing digital experiences for children, that could cover games or responsive.

We originally had between 16 and 20 principles- before settling on 9. We documented the principles then set about storyboarding interactions that would demonstrate them.

At this point I was left to carry the project over the line, both Andy and Joe moved teams and I think this possibly was the most challenging period of the project. I was acutely aware that it might be seen as a pet project so needed to keep up the momentum.

My creative director was great and backed me by getting an agency to bring the ideas to life in a video with a cool voice-over by Barney from Blue Peter.

Once the video was shown it again felt a weight was lifted. Working on projects is one thing but asking people to back you with money to develop your idea is another. I was delighted with the final output and felt it really succeeded in communicating to agencies, new designers as well as outside the BBC what it takes to create a great children's experience.