Potty with Pull-Ups
featuring Disney Jr.
The BIG KID® Experience
A reward system built for toddlers, starring Mickey and his pals as a band. Every successful potty event earns a new character on stage — each one playing an instrument — so a child watches their band grow as their progress does.
4.7 Star App Rating
✳︎
80% of Parents Report Reduced Stress
✳︎
100K Downloads in 5 Months (12 month goal)
✳︎
77% of Downloads Regularly Engage
✳︎
4.7 Star App Rating ✳︎ 80% of Parents Report Reduced Stress ✳︎ 100K Downloads in 5 Months (12 month goal) ✳︎ 77% of Downloads Regularly Engage ✳︎
My Role
Senior UX Designer and UX Strategy
My Role Overview
I led design strategy and UX design for the reward system's play layer — researching children's apps to establish the interaction principles, then designing the instruments and how a child plays them, along with other activities.
Project Timeline
Spring 2023 - Summer 2025
Tools
Figma
Figjam
Monday.com
Building a
Reward System
Working with pediatric experts, we knew that a rewarding was essential to a child’s success in potty training.
We leveraged Pull-Ups’ close relationship with Disney to build a reward system, The Clubhouse Band®, around Mickey Mouse and his pals, plus other fun activities.
Our Research
During my research of children’s game apps, I landed on 2 principles that drove the design:
Keep it Simple
Meet the toddler at their developmental age. Limit interactions to tap and swipe
Immediate feedback at every touch
All interactions must have a reaction: sound, motion, visual changes
The Research
Combining our research findings with these design principles, we built a reward system centered on what actually motivates a toddler: sound, choice, and instant feedback.
The BIG KID® Center
Featuring
The CLUBHOUSE BAND®
Connecting Milestones to the Band
To make potty training feel like an adventure, we brought the child directly into the journey. Kids chose their own band leader (Mickey or Minnie) to guide them through the experience, while each milestone tied to a Clubhouse Band character and their instrument — turning progress into something to look forward to, not just track.
From the start, kids picked a band leader to champion them through their journey, giving them personal ownership over the experience from day one. Starting a new milestone unlocked a new instrument, giving kids an immediate, tangible reward the moment they began. Completing the milestone took it further — earning the character and their instrument a full solo, turning achievement into a celebration kids could see and hear. Together, the chosen leader and the growing band gave the abstract idea of "progress" a concrete, playful form kids stayed motivated to keep building.
Designing Instruments For Kids
Designing an instrument a toddler could actually play meant rethinking every touchpoint — and knowing when a parent needed to be part of the equation. We researched the most intuitive interaction types for 3- to 4-year-olds, landing on tap as the most natural motion, while reserving swipe for moments a parent could step in and teach it.
Every interaction decision started with the child's developmental stage: tap emerged as the most intuitive motion for this age group and required no assistance, while swipe only worked with light parental guidance — so I designed around that distinction rather than assuming a child would always be playing alone. From there, I broke down each instrument's design to match those physical and cognitive abilities, without sacrificing musical realness — real notes, real sounds, a genuine instrument underneath the simplified interaction. As I designed, I tested directly with toddlers (and their parents) to confirm the interactions felt natural, and that parents could easily step in when a swipe gesture needed guidance. That research loop — design, test with kids, refine — shaped every instrument in the band.
Celebrating Potty Wins
We brought Mickey and Minnie out of the BIG KID® Center to celebrate wins with the child, right at the moment of success. Personalized band leader videos met every milestone in real time — from a quick cheer after a potty win to a full celebration when a new band member joined the crew.
The reward strategy layered in three distinct celebration moments, each tied to a different milestone: an encouraging message from the band leader right after a potty success, a congratulations video when a new instrument was earned, and a full celebration — introducing the newest band member — upon completing a milestone entirely. Each video reinforced the emotional payoff of progress, turning a simple win into something worth celebrating out loud. Parents also had access to every video within the Potty Plan, so they could replay a band leader's message anytime — whether to re-motivate their child or simply relive the moment. This gave the reward system a personal, ongoing presence beyond the immediate moment of success.
More Disney Activities
After app launch, the band's success proved kids wanted more ways to be rewarded — so we introduced Coloring as a second activity. Partnering with Disney, we designed coloring pages built around the same reward mindset that made the band work.
With the band's momentum as proof of concept, we set out to expand the ways a child could engage and be celebrated within the app. I researched best-in-class coloring apps for toddlers, applying our existing design principles to keep the new activity consistent with the rest of the experience. We landed on a swipe-based interaction, sectioning each coloring page into defined boundaries — wherever a child's finger first touched determined which section they'd color. This kept the interaction simple and forgiving for small hands, while giving kids another creative, rewarding way to engage between milestones.
The Final Celebration
Every milestone had its moment — but completing potty training entirely deserved something bigger. As the ultimate celebration, the child unlocks a full music video of the band, performing a custom song produced just for the app.
After weeks of unlocking instruments and earning solos, the final reward brought the entire band together for the first time — Mickey, Minnie, and every character the child had collected along the way, performing live in a fully produced music video. Bringing that moment to life meant working directly with Disney to produce the video, from storyboarding its narrative to composing an original song built specifically for the app. The result wasn't just another notification or badge — it was the emotional payoff of the whole journey, turning the final milestone into a genuine celebration worth watching (and rewatching). It gave families a lasting, shareable moment to mark the achievement, proof that potty training wasn't just completed, but celebrated.
Less Stress. More Success.
Downloads: Over 71,000 downloads, achieving 93% of its Year 1 goal in just a few months.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): A highly efficient ~$5.30, significantly below the target of $10.
App Store Rating: A strong 4.7 out of 5 on the Apple App Store
Engagement: Users are highly engaged, averaging 3 minutes and 50 seconds per session, surpassing the 1–3-minute target.
Retention: 77% of downloads regularly engage with the app, indicating strong user satisfaction and utility.
Users reporting lower stress levels around potty-training post usage
80% of user agree the app motivates their child to potty train **(Pull-Ups first statistically significant “motivation” claim EVER!)
Pull-Ups purchase interest increased due to the app
Check Out the
Parent Experience
