Planet Pals: An AI-Guided Learning Adventure at the National Space Centre
Planet Pals is an AI-driven educational experience designed for the National Space Centre to make space learning fun, safe, and interactive for children. Guided by Cosmo the astronaut and two animated planet pals, young visitors complete missions, quizzes, and personalized Q&A sessions powered by generative AI.
Project Type:
UX / UI
Role:
Product Owner
Timeline:
9 weeks
As part of the Concurrent Design module at the University of Leicester, our team partnered with the National Space Centre Creative (NSCC) to reimagine how children engage with space education. Traditional museum exhibits often fail to hold younger visitors’ attention, leaving teachers and parents searching for more interactive and memorable experiences.
Planet Pals was born from this challenge, a concept that blends playful, character-driven storytelling with AI technology. Through touchscreen stations across the museum, children meet Cosmo the astronaut and two animated planet companions who guide them through missions, quizzes, and personalised explorations.
Our goal was to design not just another educational game, but a safe, adaptive and engaging system that feels like an extra museum staff member, answering questions, guiding exploration, and tailoring each interaction to a child’s curiosity.
Introduction
Problem
Museums are designed to educate and inspire curiosity, yet many young visitors struggle to stay engaged. Exhibits often rely on static information panels or long guided tours that don’t cater to different learning styles.
Teachers and parents expressed three recurring challenges:
Limited Engagement: Children find traditional exhibits boring and struggle to stay focused.
Lack of Personalisation: Experiences rarely adapt to individual interests or curiosity levels.
Missed Learning Opportunities: Without interactive tools, parents and teachers can’t easily reinforce STEM lessons in a fun, memorable way.
The National Space Centre wanted to explore how AI could enhance its exhibits, creating a safe, educational, and playful companion that makes learning about space as fun as playing a game.
my role
As Product Owner, I was responsible for shaping the vision and ensuring the final experience met both the client’s goals and the needs of young visitors. My key contributions included:
Defining Product Vision: Set the direction for an AI-powered, character-driven learning experience that felt fun, safe, and educational.
Stakeholder Management: Acted as the main liaison with the National Space Centre Creative (NSCC), gathering requirements, clarifying expectations, and ensuring alignment throughout development.
Agile Backlog Management: Created and prioritized user stories using MoSCoW prioritization, facilitating sprint planning and backlog refinement.
User-Centric Design: Developed personas (e.g., Amelia the 8-year-old and Adam the teacher/parent), guiding tone, accessibility, and interaction style.
UX & Narrative Design: Collaborated with designers to craft the humorous, mission-based flow, ensuring interactions met Nielsen usability principles and appealed to children.
Deliverables: Produced an investor-ready business plan deck and led the delivery of a Unity-based MVP that demonstrated AI-driven dialogue and guided navigation.
target audience
Planet Pals was designed to delight and educate two main user groups:
Primary – Children (Aged 8–12)
Secondary – Teachers & Parents
Planet Pals bridges these audiences by offering a playful, AI-guided experience that’s kid-friendly, safe, and educational, giving children autonomy in exploration while supporting teachers and parents in enriching STEM learning.
The National Space Centre wanted to explore how AI could enhance its exhibits, creating a safe, educational, and playful companion that makes learning about space as fun as playing a game.
goals and kpi's
From the outset, we defined clear goals to ensure Planet Pals delivered value to both users and the National Space Centre:
Project Goals
Create an engaging AI-guided experience that captures the imagination of children.
Support teachers and parents with educational content aligned with STEM learning objectives.
Enhance the National Space Centre’s reputation as an innovative, child-friendly destination.
Demonstrate the potential of AI in physical learning environments.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Engagement Rate: Targeted 40% of child visitors to actively interact with the Planet Pals stations.
Retention: Children complete at least one full mission or quiz per session.
User Feedback: Collect positive qualitative feedback from parents and teachers about engagement and ease of use.
Revenue Projections: £1.3M+ projected Year 1 revenue through merchandise, subscriptions, and grants.
MVP Delivery: Functional Unity prototype with AI integration delivered within 3 sprints.
process overview
Key Stages:
Discovery & Research
Collaborated with NSCC to understand their vision and current visitor experience.
Conducted user research and created detailed personas (Amelia and Adam).
Identified competitor solutions and opportunities for innovation.
Ideation & Backlog Creation
Defined user stories (e.g., “As an 8-year-old, I want Cosmo to guide me so I can explore space at my own pace”).
Used MoSCoW prioritisation to focus on must-have features for the MVP.
Design & Storyboarding
Created storyboards and early sketches to map out character interactions, humor style, and mission flow.
Developed clickable wireframes to test navigation with children’s needs in mind.
Development (Unity + AI Integration)
Built core experience in Unity with clickable options instead of free typing.
Integrated ChatGPT API for AI-driven dialogue and personalized learning.
Designed Pixar/Bluey-inspired 2D visuals for emotional connection.
Testing & Iteration
Conducted internal usability reviews to ensure simplicity and safety.
Adjusted dialogue, mission flow, and interactions based on feedback.
Delivered a Unity MVP demonstrating AI-driven tours and interactive missions.
Business Plan Delivery
Produced an investor-ready pitch deck outlining UVP, competitor analysis, marketing strategy, and financial forecasts.
Reflection & What I’d Do Differently
Building Planet Pals was a unique opportunity to combine ai, ux and playful storytelling into a real world educational experience. Leading as Product Owner taught me valuable lessons about balancing innovation with practicality in a tight timeframe.
Key Learnings
Product Vision: A clear vision and strong personas kept the team aligned, even under time pressure.
Child Centered Design: Designing for children required simplicity, humor, and extra care around safety and content moderation.
Agile Mindset: Iterative development allowed us to adapt quickly and focus on must have features without losing sight of the bigger goal.
What I’d Do Differently
Real World User Testing: I would conduct early usability tests with children and parents at the museum to validate design decisions and improve flow.
Voice Interaction: Adding voice-based AI responses would make the experience even more natural and accessible for younger children.
Iterative Deployment: Instead of a single MVP, I’d release micro prototypes on site to gather live feedback from visitors sooner.
Planet Pals laid the foundation for a future where ai powered companions transform museum learning With additional time and resources, it could evolve into a full-scale, multi-platform experience with richer missions, more interactive characters, and extended learning tools for schools and families.
VIEW ALL PROJECTS
Planet Pals: An AI-Guided Learning Adventure at the National Space Centre
Planet Pals is an AI-driven educational experience designed for the National Space Centre to make space learning fun, safe, and interactive for children. Guided by Cosmo the astronaut and two animated planet pals, young visitors complete missions, quizzes, and personalized Q&A sessions powered by generative AI.
Project Type:
UX / UI
Role:
Product Owner
Timeline:
9 weeks
As part of the Concurrent Design module at the University of Leicester, our team partnered with the National Space Centre Creative (NSCC) to reimagine how children engage with space education. Traditional museum exhibits often fail to hold younger visitors’ attention, leaving teachers and parents searching for more interactive and memorable experiences.
Planet Pals was born from this challenge, a concept that blends playful, character-driven storytelling with AI technology. Through touchscreen stations across the museum, children meet Cosmo the astronaut and two animated planet companions who guide them through missions, quizzes, and personalised explorations.
Our goal was to design not just another educational game, but a safe, adaptive and engaging system that feels like an extra museum staff member, answering questions, guiding exploration, and tailoring each interaction to a child’s curiosity.
Introduction
Problem
Museums are designed to educate and inspire curiosity, yet many young visitors struggle to stay engaged. Exhibits often rely on static information panels or long guided tours that don’t cater to different learning styles.
Teachers and parents expressed three recurring challenges:
Limited Engagement: Children find traditional exhibits boring and struggle to stay focused.
Lack of Personalisation: Experiences rarely adapt to individual interests or curiosity levels.
Missed Learning Opportunities: Without interactive tools, parents and teachers can’t easily reinforce STEM lessons in a fun, memorable way.
The National Space Centre wanted to explore how AI could enhance its exhibits, creating a safe, educational, and playful companion that makes learning about space as fun as playing a game.
my role
As Product Owner, I was responsible for shaping the vision and ensuring the final experience met both the client’s goals and the needs of young visitors. My key contributions included:
Defining Product Vision: Set the direction for an AI-powered, character-driven learning experience that felt fun, safe, and educational.
Stakeholder Management: Acted as the main liaison with the National Space Centre Creative (NSCC), gathering requirements, clarifying expectations, and ensuring alignment throughout development.
Agile Backlog Management: Created and prioritized user stories using MoSCoW prioritization, facilitating sprint planning and backlog refinement.
User-Centric Design: Developed personas (e.g., Amelia the 8-year-old and Adam the teacher/parent), guiding tone, accessibility, and interaction style.
UX & Narrative Design: Collaborated with designers to craft the humorous, mission-based flow, ensuring interactions met Nielsen usability principles and appealed to children.
Deliverables: Produced an investor-ready business plan deck and led the delivery of a Unity-based MVP that demonstrated AI-driven dialogue and guided navigation.
target audience
Planet Pals was designed to delight and educate two main user groups:
Primary – Children (Aged 8–12)
Secondary – Teachers & Parents
Planet Pals bridges these audiences by offering a playful, AI-guided experience that’s kid-friendly, safe, and educational, giving children autonomy in exploration while supporting teachers and parents in enriching STEM learning.
The National Space Centre wanted to explore how AI could enhance its exhibits, creating a safe, educational, and playful companion that makes learning about space as fun as playing a game.
goals and kpi's
From the outset, we defined clear goals to ensure Planet Pals delivered value to both users and the National Space Centre:
Project Goals
Create an engaging AI-guided experience that captures the imagination of children.
Support teachers and parents with educational content aligned with STEM learning objectives.
Enhance the National Space Centre’s reputation as an innovative, child-friendly destination.
Demonstrate the potential of AI in physical learning environments.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Engagement Rate: Targeted 40% of child visitors to actively interact with the Planet Pals stations.
Retention: Children complete at least one full mission or quiz per session.
User Feedback: Collect positive qualitative feedback from parents and teachers about engagement and ease of use.
Revenue Projections: £1.3M+ projected Year 1 revenue through merchandise, subscriptions, and grants.
MVP Delivery: Functional Unity prototype with AI integration delivered within 3 sprints.
process overview
Key Stages:
Discovery & Research
Collaborated with NSCC to understand their vision and current visitor experience.
Conducted user research and created detailed personas (Amelia and Adam).
Identified competitor solutions and opportunities for innovation.
Ideation & Backlog Creation
Defined user stories (e.g., “As an 8-year-old, I want Cosmo to guide me so I can explore space at my own pace”).
Used MoSCoW prioritisation to focus on must-have features for the MVP.
Design & Storyboarding
Created storyboards and early sketches to map out character interactions, humor style, and mission flow.
Developed clickable wireframes to test navigation with children’s needs in mind.
Development (Unity + AI Integration)
Built core experience in Unity with clickable options instead of free typing.
Integrated ChatGPT API for AI-driven dialogue and personalized learning.
Designed Pixar/Bluey-inspired 2D visuals for emotional connection.
Testing & Iteration
Conducted internal usability reviews to ensure simplicity and safety.
Adjusted dialogue, mission flow, and interactions based on feedback.
Delivered a Unity MVP demonstrating AI-driven tours and interactive missions.
Business Plan Delivery
Produced an investor-ready pitch deck outlining UVP, competitor analysis, marketing strategy, and financial forecasts.
Reflection & What I’d Do Differently
Building Planet Pals was a unique opportunity to combine ai, ux and playful storytelling into a real world educational experience. Leading as Product Owner taught me valuable lessons about balancing innovation with practicality in a tight timeframe.
Key Learnings
Product Vision: A clear vision and strong personas kept the team aligned, even under time pressure.
Child Centered Design: Designing for children required simplicity, humor, and extra care around safety and content moderation.
Agile Mindset: Iterative development allowed us to adapt quickly and focus on must have features without losing sight of the bigger goal.
What I’d Do Differently
Real World User Testing: I would conduct early usability tests with children and parents at the museum to validate design decisions and improve flow.
Voice Interaction: Adding voice-based AI responses would make the experience even more natural and accessible for younger children.
Iterative Deployment: Instead of a single MVP, I’d release micro prototypes on site to gather live feedback from visitors sooner.
Planet Pals laid the foundation for a future where ai powered companions transform museum learning With additional time and resources, it could evolve into a full-scale, multi-platform experience with richer missions, more interactive characters, and extended learning tools for schools and families.
VIEW ALL PROJECTS
Planet Pals: An AI-Guided Learning Adventure at the National Space Centre
Planet Pals is an AI-driven educational experience designed for the National Space Centre to make space learning fun, safe, and interactive for children. Guided by Cosmo the astronaut and two animated planet pals, young visitors complete missions, quizzes, and personalized Q&A sessions powered by generative AI.
Project Type:
UX / UI
Role:
Product Owner
Timeline:
9 weeks
As part of the Concurrent Design module at the University of Leicester, our team partnered with the National Space Centre Creative (NSCC) to reimagine how children engage with space education. Traditional museum exhibits often fail to hold younger visitors’ attention, leaving teachers and parents searching for more interactive and memorable experiences.
Planet Pals was born from this challenge, a concept that blends playful, character-driven storytelling with AI technology. Through touchscreen stations across the museum, children meet Cosmo the astronaut and two animated planet companions who guide them through missions, quizzes, and personalised explorations.
Our goal was to design not just another educational game, but a safe, adaptive and engaging system that feels like an extra museum staff member, answering questions, guiding exploration, and tailoring each interaction to a child’s curiosity.
Introduction
Problem
Museums are designed to educate and inspire curiosity, yet many young visitors struggle to stay engaged. Exhibits often rely on static information panels or long guided tours that don’t cater to different learning styles.
Teachers and parents expressed three recurring challenges:
Limited Engagement: Children find traditional exhibits boring and struggle to stay focused.
Lack of Personalisation: Experiences rarely adapt to individual interests or curiosity levels.
Missed Learning Opportunities: Without interactive tools, parents and teachers can’t easily reinforce STEM lessons in a fun, memorable way.
The National Space Centre wanted to explore how AI could enhance its exhibits, creating a safe, educational, and playful companion that makes learning about space as fun as playing a game.
my role
As Product Owner, I was responsible for shaping the vision and ensuring the final experience met both the client’s goals and the needs of young visitors. My key contributions included:
Defining Product Vision: Set the direction for an AI-powered, character-driven learning experience that felt fun, safe, and educational.
Stakeholder Management: Acted as the main liaison with the National Space Centre Creative (NSCC), gathering requirements, clarifying expectations, and ensuring alignment throughout development.
Agile Backlog Management: Created and prioritized user stories using MoSCoW prioritization, facilitating sprint planning and backlog refinement.
User-Centric Design: Developed personas (e.g., Amelia the 8-year-old and Adam the teacher/parent), guiding tone, accessibility, and interaction style.
UX & Narrative Design: Collaborated with designers to craft the humorous, mission-based flow, ensuring interactions met Nielsen usability principles and appealed to children.
Deliverables: Produced an investor-ready business plan deck and led the delivery of a Unity-based MVP that demonstrated AI-driven dialogue and guided navigation.
target audience
Planet Pals was designed to delight and educate two main user groups:
Primary – Children (Aged 8–12)
Secondary – Teachers & Parents
Planet Pals bridges these audiences by offering a playful, AI-guided experience that’s kid-friendly, safe, and educational, giving children autonomy in exploration while supporting teachers and parents in enriching STEM learning.
The National Space Centre wanted to explore how AI could enhance its exhibits, creating a safe, educational, and playful companion that makes learning about space as fun as playing a game.
goals and kpi's
From the outset, we defined clear goals to ensure Planet Pals delivered value to both users and the National Space Centre:
Project Goals
Create an engaging AI-guided experience that captures the imagination of children.
Support teachers and parents with educational content aligned with STEM learning objectives.
Enhance the National Space Centre’s reputation as an innovative, child-friendly destination.
Demonstrate the potential of AI in physical learning environments.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Engagement Rate: Targeted 40% of child visitors to actively interact with the Planet Pals stations.
Retention: Children complete at least one full mission or quiz per session.
User Feedback: Collect positive qualitative feedback from parents and teachers about engagement and ease of use.
Revenue Projections: £1.3M+ projected Year 1 revenue through merchandise, subscriptions, and grants.
MVP Delivery: Functional Unity prototype with AI integration delivered within 3 sprints.
process overview
Key Stages:
Discovery & Research
Collaborated with NSCC to understand their vision and current visitor experience.
Conducted user research and created detailed personas (Amelia and Adam).
Identified competitor solutions and opportunities for innovation.
Ideation & Backlog Creation
Defined user stories (e.g., “As an 8-year-old, I want Cosmo to guide me so I can explore space at my own pace”).
Used MoSCoW prioritisation to focus on must-have features for the MVP.
Design & Storyboarding
Created storyboards and early sketches to map out character interactions, humor style, and mission flow.
Developed clickable wireframes to test navigation with children’s needs in mind.
Development (Unity + AI Integration)
Built core experience in Unity with clickable options instead of free typing.
Integrated ChatGPT API for AI-driven dialogue and personalized learning.
Designed Pixar/Bluey-inspired 2D visuals for emotional connection.
Testing & Iteration
Conducted internal usability reviews to ensure simplicity and safety.
Adjusted dialogue, mission flow, and interactions based on feedback.
Delivered a Unity MVP demonstrating AI-driven tours and interactive missions.
Business Plan Delivery
Produced an investor-ready pitch deck outlining UVP, competitor analysis, marketing strategy, and financial forecasts.
Reflection & What I’d Do Differently
Building Planet Pals was a unique opportunity to combine ai, ux and playful storytelling into a real world educational experience. Leading as Product Owner taught me valuable lessons about balancing innovation with practicality in a tight timeframe.
Key Learnings
Product Vision: A clear vision and strong personas kept the team aligned, even under time pressure.
Child Centered Design: Designing for children required simplicity, humor, and extra care around safety and content moderation.
Agile Mindset: Iterative development allowed us to adapt quickly and focus on must have features without losing sight of the bigger goal.
What I’d Do Differently
Real World User Testing: I would conduct early usability tests with children and parents at the museum to validate design decisions and improve flow.
Voice Interaction: Adding voice-based AI responses would make the experience even more natural and accessible for younger children.
Iterative Deployment: Instead of a single MVP, I’d release micro prototypes on site to gather live feedback from visitors sooner.
Planet Pals laid the foundation for a future where ai powered companions transform museum learning With additional time and resources, it could evolve into a full-scale, multi-platform experience with richer missions, more interactive characters, and extended learning tools for schools and families.
VIEW ALL PROJECTS