Turning play into magic with AI-powered storytelling

Storia is our ongoing startup project: a screen-free interactive toy house that creates unique stories based on the objects children place inside. Every story is different — generated in real time — so play always feels magical, surprising, and new.

Client

Master project (Start-up)

Industry

Toys

Role

Business Development Creative Technologist

Team Setup

2 designers

Timeline

On-going

Goal

We set out to design Storia as a toy that blends traditional play with modern technology. Our aim is to let children explore storytelling as naturally as they play with their toys, while giving parents a safe, screen-free alternative to nurture creativity and learning.

Challenge

Our main challenges are less about the product itself and more about the path to market: Finding the right people to work with to turn the prototype into a scalable product. Defining a go-to-market strategy that ensures parents trust the toy and understand its value. Preparing for grants and funding, making sure our business model is solid. Scalability and manufacturing, which will become critical once we move beyond small-batch prototypes. These challenges are shaping how we think about Storia not just as a design experiment, but as a sustainable startup.

Outcome (so far)

So far, Storia has evolved from a one-week course prototype into a validated concept with startup potential:

Second iteration showcased at the Bern Design Festival, where we tested with children and parents and received highly positive feedback.
Validation that children engage playfully while parents appreciate the screen-free, educational approach.
Shift into a startup project, supported by Innosuisse entrepreneurial trainings and preparations for the first round of grants.
MVP in progress, combining the toy with a parent app for story personalisation.

This journey confirmed both the user value and the business opportunity, and it motivates us to keep building towards a scalable, market-ready product.

Second Prototype & Bern Festival - User Testing Results

How it started

First prototype: 1 brief and 4 days to go

We built the very first prototype during a 4-day sprint at a machine learning course. With such a strict timeline, we kept the design minimal and all-wood, focusing on creating a proof of concept rather than polish.

We chose the form of a house for both practical and symbolic reasons:

Familiarity – a house is instantly recognisable to children.
Emotional meaning – a house represents safety and belonging, making it the perfect 'home' for their toys.

This simple but meaningful design became the foundation of Storia: a place where children's toys could come alive through storytelling.

Storia Outcome - Final Product and User Testing

Second Prototype & Bern Festival

Design Decisions

Materials – We moved to birch wood, a safer and more toy-appropriate material, with rounded edges and minimal plastic.
Screen-Free Play – We removed the screen entirely to create a purely magical, screen-free experience. All the technology works invisibly in the background, so for children the toy feels alive without showing the mechanics.

Validation at Bern Festival

The Bern Design Festival was the first time we could test Storia with a wide audience of children and parents. Over several days, dozens of families interacted with the toy:

Children's reactions – Younger children treated it as a game, trying different toys to see how the story would change, while older children experimented more strategically, pushing the limits of the system. Their curiosity validated the idea of endless replayability.
Parents' reactions – Many parents commented on the relief of having a screen-free educational toy. They saw storytelling not only as entertainment but as a tool for learning vocabulary, values, and creativity.
Insights for us – Watching families interact with Storia gave us practical feedback: which ages were most engaged, how long children stayed interested, and what parents valued most. We learned that parents needed reassurance about educational benefits, while children simply wanted it to feel magical and fun.

The festival was a turning point. It validated Storia as more than a design experiment and gave us the confidence to start treating it as a potential startup venture.

Startup & Vision

What I'm learning

The success at Bern gave us the confidence to take Storia further — not just as a design project, but as a startup. Since then, we've been attending Innosuisse entrepreneurial trainings, preparing for our first round of grants, and working on an MVP that combines the toy with a parent app. The app will allow parents to personalise the stories by choosing things like age, language, and story duration.

For me, Storia has been a journey of growth. I started as the creative technologist, building the electronics and code, but my role has since evolved into business development: leading the team, shaping strategy, meeting investors and entrepreneurs, and putting myself out there at networking events.

It has been a crash course in time management, leadership, and decision-making, while still keeping one foot in design and product thinking.

My vision for Storia

I believe deeply in the role of education and the power of storytelling in children's development. Storytelling begins with simple vocabulary and lessons about right and wrong, but it doesn't stop in early childhood — it's the foundation of how we learn throughout school and life.

With Storia, I see the opportunity to use modern technology — especially AI — to bring back traditional play. Instead of adding another screen, we create something magical: a toy that sparks imagination, builds creativity, and makes learning feel like play.

I like to think of Storia as more than a toy. It's a way for families to reconnect, for children to experience wonder, and for parents to feel confident that playtime is both fun and meaningful.