The Barbie DreamFloor

Project Description

Forget boring toy catalogs – the Barbie DreamFloor introduces a whole new way for kids to explore toys through elaborate storytelling and interactive video. The experience features live-action footage of hundreds of Mattel toys and places them into an imaginative, interactive online story where kids have full narrative control (think Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, with a wider range of interactive possibilities). 

This project reimagines the future of entertainment and advertisement. With 33 possible narrative paths, dozens of easter egg surprises, and an e-commerce experience for parents to boot, I had the pleasure of leading the full-stack design efforts for this project in collaboration with some of the top creative partners around.

Crafting an interactive narrative of this scale isn’t easy. The inter-disciplinary skills needed for this experience were immense. From the initial creative concept, to working directly with our talented writers to shape the narrative with 100+ pages of interactive scripts, to collaborating with art directors, cinematographers, set designers and producers on set, to leading animators, visual designers, editors and developers during post-production, this project allowed me to take narrative and experience design to a whole new level. 

In addition to complex user flows, experience maps, and careful mediation across content, design, production, development, and stakeholders, deliverables for the project included end-to-end wireframes, technical specs, dozens of google docs and spreadsheets, as well as interactive prototypes and animation samples. 

The Barbie DreamFloor is part of the larger “KidHQ” experience for Walmart/Mattel/Buzzfeed.   

Sample Documentation

Full Experience Map:

Sample user flows: