Nova Stories
A magical jukebox of stories from your imagination
A voice-first AI storyteller that builds bedtime stories with kids, chapter by chapter.
NOVA is an end-to-end internal experiment: a friendly AI storyteller living inside an app, built so families and children can bring new stories to life and keep changing them as they go. Guided prompts, a purpose-built interface, and stories made out of a shared imagination rather than a text box.
We gave NOVA a character. An inquisitive, interactive presence that lives in the app and shows itself as five dynamic lines, moving as it speaks and appearing at the points in the story where it's actually needed.
The idea came from a frustration. AI keeps arriving as a generalised chat interface, when what most people need is a purpose-built one: a guided path toward a particular outcome. Here that means parents and children making stories together, in a secure, ring-fenced place built for them.
It also had to prove something commercial. NOVA is a working example of an AI product that stands up as a business, with a paid model that's fair to the customer and profitable to run. We built it out properly: a brand, a live iOS app, a commercial model and a marketing site.
Nova Stories
A magical jukebox of stories from your imagination
A voice-first AI storyteller that builds bedtime stories with kids, chapter by chapter.
THE CHALLENGE
NOVA was an internal FINH project that went from idea to market. Story time and bedtime are intimate moments, and most AI products hand you a chat box and call it an experience. The challenge was to build the opposite: a voice-first, mascot-led AI made for kids, with NOVA as a guide that builds the story with you. It works like a jukebox. You load stories in and build on them over time, with chapters that unlock new pathways and let the story keep growing, a model that also fit the business: quick generations of images, characters and voice for each story. NOVA shows itself as five dynamic lines that move as it speaks and listens. The brand is built for children and parents at once: a jukebox wordmark, a voice that's warm rather than cute, and a colour system that runs across story vinyls, app, merchandise and out-of-home.
THE OUTCOME
I was one of the designers and drove it within the FINH design and development team. We designed, prototyped, built and launched it as one end-to-end exercise.
- Client
- Self-initiated
- Year
- 2024
- Sector
- AI, KidTech, Brand
- Agency
- FINH
- Type
- Digital
- Role
- Design & Project Lead
- Outcome
- Brand identity, Product design, UI/UX, Campaign