Moji

Five colorful square digital devices with pixelated characters and icons displayed on their screens against a light pink background.

Moji

2026

Bringing children’s stories to life with generative storytelling.

Project summary

[[MOJI is a generative storytelling toy exploring how technology can bring children’s imagination to life.]] The project transforms children’s ideas into interactive stories through physical play and sound, using AI to respond dynamically in real time.

Unified by playful, tangible interactions, MOJI encourages active storytelling and creativity, offering modes that enable solo or family play while supporting fine motor skill development.

Project details

Information

Clara H. Germann

Benedikt Herzau

Pius Burkhart

Team

Sound design

2026

3 Weeks

Role

Concept

Interface design

Prototyping

Research

User testing

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Problem

Children are encountering digital technology earlier than ever, spending less time with physical and social forms of creative play. This project explores designing with AI to empower imagination, transforming generative AI into a tool for storytelling, exploration, and playful invention.

Gray placeholder image icon with two mountain peaks and a sun on a light gray background.

Vision

Our vision was to create a tangible device that unlocks children’s creativity instead of replacing it, giving form to their wildest ideas. We wanted to bring stories to life through physical play and self-expression, crafting experiences that spark imagination, whether at bedtime or during the day.

A modular generative storyteller

MOJI is a storytelling toy that transforms children’s ideas into playful, interactive adventures, bringing their imagination to life through sound and physical play. It inspires spontaneous storytelling and creative exploration, offering joyful experiences alone or with family anytime during the day.

Placeholder image icon with a mountain and sun inside a rounded square on a light gray background.

Generating a story

Each story begins with four simple inputs: one character, one environment, and two open prompts that guide the narrative. This setup provides a clear starting point while leaving plenty of room for imagination to unfold.

Two types of input

Users can add their ideas in two ways: by long-pressing to speak whatever comes to mind, or by tapping to explore characters, environments, and prompts they’ve saved before.

System

Four interactive modules allow users to actively shape and guide the story, enabling dynamic and responsive storytelling. The base functions as the main speaker, providing consistent audio output as the narrative unfolds.

Setting length of story

After setting all inputs, the base allows users to set the story’s length using a rotary dial. Each tile represents a chapter, and the number of LEDs on the base indicates the total chapters in the story.

Developing the story

The story develops sequentially: when a chapter ends, the child is prompted to pick up the last interactive module in the “snake” and provide a new input to continue the narrative. This keeps the story dynamic and engages the child in shaping each chapter through their interactions.

Creating the next chapter

After a chapter ends, the story can be continued in three ways: an ambient teaser hints at what’s next, a riddle poses a challenge, or an open-mic input shapes the narrative freely.

Ambient hint

Riddle

Open-mic

The word 'Invasion' in white pixelated text on a bright magenta background.

Close-up 3D digital rendering of a white, blocky mechanical or architectural surface with two prominent circular structures and geometric patterns.

Unexpected interactions

We decided to embrace unexpected interactions: creating a loop lets the story continue automatically, stacking a tile pauses the narrative, and completing a tower at the end allows the story to be saved and played later.

Loop

Pause

Story saving

User testing

We tested with Roby, a 5-year-old, and his mother to see how children might interact with the toy and what stories they would create. Solo play proved challenging at this age, emphasizing the need for collaborative or guided play.

Types of storytelling

Tests helped us define two user groups. Younger children (4–7) who rely more on parental support, while older children (7–10) could play independently. Based on this, we expanded the concept to two modes: ambient creation, generating soundscapes to accompany a parent narrating, and narrated story, told by an AI voice.

Physical form

We carefully designed the modules for children, with a dot-matrix, paper-like e-ink display that’s less distracting, an indented puffy top to protect against drops, a bumper ring on the bottom to prevent scratches when stacking, and a soft-grip frame for easy handling.

Empty placeholder image with a light gray background and an icon of a photo in the center.

Reflection

Exploring the potential of generative AI for a children’s audience was very exciting. I especially enjoyed the challenge of navigating ethical considerations while exploring how the technology could be used to create a playful, engaging experience.

With this project I also was able to familiarize myself more with tools like Cursor that enabled us to rapidly prototype a fully functional interface. This was extremely rewarding as it enabled an iterative experimentation with interactions and storytelling in real time. In comparison to previous user studies, working with children was humbling and unpredictable. It taught me how crucial it is to stay flexible when working with atypical users.