Interactive story app made for kids
ROLE
UX Design, User Research, Visual Design, Motion Design
TIMELINE
3 weeks (2023)
TOOLS
Figma, Photoshop, After Effects
Awdio was originally a project at LEGO Ventures. It's an interactive audio-story app for children where they can participate and influence the course of events in the story. The screen is secondary to the Awdio Experience to give space for the children's imagination.
Note: Because the target group was children between the ages 5-10 year old, the research was limited to competitive analysis and desktop research. No interviews with the target group was conducted.
PROBLEM
The challenge for this project was to create a visually aesthetic design suited for children, while at the same time keeping the screen secondary to the experience. It was important to keep the design minimal to not cause distractions for the user or trigger the user to look at the app too much.
HOW MIGHT WE
RESEARCH
I limited the research to popular apps used by the target group, as well as popular audio apps in general. I wanted to combine my insights from both perspectives when making my final design.
Popular apps amongst the target group
Roblox
Roblox has multiple game categories that their users can choose between. The games vary from both horizontal and vertical layouts. The usage of icons, buttons and text is different from game to game.
Lego Ninjago
Lego Ninjago’s UI has a very playful visual branding, it heavily focuses on the usage of icons and buttons and there is not much text.
Minecraft
Minecraft’s UI focuses a lot on the usage of icons and buttons. It has a very unique, simplistic and playful visual design.
YouTube Kids
The UI of YouTube Kids is very colorful and playful. They are using icons and buttons to replace text or to make text easier to digest.
Popular audio apps
Moshi Kids
Dynamic UI, it has both day-time and night-time. It changes depending on what time of the day it is. The app focuses on thumbnails to capture the user’s attention.
Loóna
Big focus on the usage of thumbnails. The app has a dark theme, as well as interactive 3D elements for the user while they are listening to stories.
VISUAL DESIGN
The Target Group is more than capable of adapting to various interfaces. They are used to both horizontal and vertical layouts. The most common apps they are using have a common theme of Games and Gaming. This laid out the foundation for my design decisions.
I wanted to add a gaming touch to the entire design. This was applied to the buttons especially.
Playful Visual Design
I wanted the brand to have a playful design to match what the target group is mostly used to.
Dark Theme
To reduce strain on the eyes I decided to go with dark theme.
✔️ Buttons: I designed the buttons with a playful and gaming-themed appearance, inspired by the apps commonly used by the target audience. My aim was to make them feel a sense of familiarity and recognize a style they are already comfortable with.
✔️ Animated Background: My goal was to design a background that featured a subtle yet engaging animation. By incorporating movement, I aimed to enhance the immersive quality of the experience without it becoming overly distracting.
✔️ Fonts: Given that Awdio will feature children's stories with various plots and genres, I opted for a Fantasy-Inspired font to enhance the overall aesthetic and create a fitting visual experience.
Logo design
I wanted to create a night sky themed UI design and therefore made the logo connected to that through falling stars.
WIREFRAMES
A simple Userflow was created to get a solid overview of the navigation of the app before sketching out the Wireframes.
THE RESULT
When the user is opening the app they are first prompted with an intro animation. They can then choose between playing an episode right away, or going to the Show Profile with more information.
Throughout the story the user will be given the opportunity to choose between different outcomes that effects the story. I designed the UI in a way where it updates depending on the choice. In the below example the user has chosen the Icy White Weapon Spell.
Once a story is finished the creator can choose to either replay the next episode, play the next, or switch to another show.
Animation
I wanted to add depth to the app by incorporating a subtle animation of falling stars into the background, consistent with the theme of a night time starry sky.
THE RESULT
thanks for visiting
Sara. A 2024, based in Stockholm