In this week’s episode of Wish I Thought of That (WITOT), Hiba Ganta and I look at what innovation really means in the space of children’s play, and what it reveals about how we design technology for adults.
The conversation starts with a simple idea: healthy play in the age of addictive screens. From Bluey to Yoto and Lovevery, we explore products that respect attention rather than exploit it, and how those same design principles could reshape digital products everywhere.
We talk about how tools for kids often get the basics right, clear beginnings and endings, calm pacing, tactile control, while adult tools chase engagement at any cost. The question running through the episode: what would happen if software was designed like a good toy?
It’s a conversation about values in design — autonomy, clarity, and care — and about the responsibility of builders to create tools that nurture independence, not dependence.
Key themes
Design for independence, not dependence: the line between empowering and exploiting users.
Parent OS: how great children’s products quietly serve both the parent (operator) and child (beneficiary).
Offline innovation: why the best tech sometimes steps out of the screen.
From play to product: how Montessori thinking and real-world tactility inspire better UX.
Cultural shift: the growing movement toward phone-light childhoods and intentional tech use.
Links
Hiba on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hibaganta/
The Needful is Hiba’s newsletter on cultural intelligence for sharper, human-led product decisions. It is for indie founders and small teams who want clarity without the AI hype. Expect pragmatic, experience-grounded strategy, mental models, and cultural research that lift your team’s thinking. Hiba has led product, designs hands-on, and works on engagement and internal culture, so she reads features, stories, and signals in one go. Subscribe if you care about shipping with craft, protecting user trust, and keeping real judgment in the loop.
Tom on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-horak/
Tom is the founder of All Shapes, a design and product studio working with founders, scale-ups and innovative enterprises to build meaningful digital tools that last. All Shapes focuses on products that blend craft, culture, and human clarity — helping teams move from early concepts to high-performing, values-aligned experiences.
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🔗 Past episodes and articles at tomhorak.substack.com.
