Laura King
Design Portfolio
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PBS KIDS Shows Navigation Redesign

PBS KIDS is doing a full redesign. I was tasked with recreating our shows navigation, which is present on all platforms to give users an easy way to find their favorite shows and discover new ones.

I lead the design and stakeholder presentations and worked alongside Lauren Nash, Senior Animator, and Cassie Le, Digital Production Designer, for brainstorming and feedback.

This is the current PBS KIDS shows navigation.

This is the current PBS KIDS shows navigation.

There were 4 main goals for the redesign:

  1. Include both show characters and show logos. This gives us the ability to highlight new non-show content (podcasts, shorts, etc) with more context.

  2. Easily swap out different characters from each show.

  3. Encourage kids to discover new shows.

  4. Create more consistency across platforms.

The first round of designs was focused finding a balance between the characters and show logos.

The first round of designs was focused finding a balance between the characters and show logos.

We don’t include logos in this way in the current PBS KIDS experience, so this was a new design challenge.

Next, I started experimenting with color. This quickly became an accessibility challenge.

Next, I started experimenting with color. This quickly became an accessibility challenge.

It was important that each logo was easily readable, each character popped on their button background color, and that the colors could be flexible for themes, like Valentine’s Day.

The second round was focused on refining both the button shape and the logo size and placement.

The second round was focused on refining both the button shape and the logo size and placement.

I continued to pressure test colors and the option of including show background art.

I continued to pressure test colors and the option of including show background art.

When I presented this to stakeholders, the show background colors got a lot of ooo’s and ahh’s. They gave a peek into the show and the world that the characters live in.

I pressure tested our navigation with different characters and within the new in-progress pbskids.org layout.

I pressure tested our navigation with different characters and within the new in-progress pbskids.org layout.

I was really excited with how well the specs worked across our array of characters.

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These are the top 2 designs.

These are the top 2 designs.

I will continue stakeholder presentations, gathering feedback, and refining the navigation for each platform in the coming months.


The redesign will launch by the end of 2023.