Amoo

creating a gender neutral world for children through storybooks

Overview

Amoo is a digital hub of gender neutral contents generated for children. We provide storybooks and supporting materials such as AR workbook and guidebook to create a more gender neutral environment for children under the age of 8.

"Nicky, What Do You Like?" is the first storybook developed and designed from scratch by Amoo. The storybook focuses on proposing a new way for children to decide color based on their hobbies and personality instead of social norm.

ROLE

Illustrations, product design, user research

DURATION

4 months (Feb - Jun 2020)

TEAM

2 product designers, 1 project manager, 1 engineer, 1 business marketer

TOOL

Design: Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign
Illustration: Adobe Illustrator, Procreate

OPPORTUNITY

Children are exposed to gender biases which become deeply ingrained in their minds and continue into adulthood.

Here are some shocking studies we found during research: 1 ) Children as young as 6 years old associate brilliance and intelligence with men more than women. 2 ) Men are less likely than women to seek help for mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety

SOLUTION

An environment (a fictional world) where children are naturally exposed to gender neutral contents through characters, story, and technology.

STORYBOOK

Nicky, What Do You Like?

Join Nicky on an empowering journey of self-discovery, as she sets out to find her true colors based on her passions and interests, rather than being confined by gender stereotypes or peer pressure.

A must-read for any child who wants to break free from the limits of society and embrace their unique identity with confidence and joy!

Storyline

Using repetition for children to build mental models of our story, making it easier to read

Illustrations

Eliminating the need for text

My primary goal was to ensure that the text and images in the storybook complemented each other harmoniously, with the text serving to enhance the visual narrative rather than the other way around. The illustrations were designed in such a way that the user could easily comprehend the plot simply by perusing the images.

PROCESS

Characters

Animals, instead of humans, to reduce gender bias

I illustrated the characters and gave each character a color, hobby, and some traits. Animals, instead of humans, were chosen to eliminate gender bias as much as possible.

All the characters were drawn with round edges and soft, sketch-like brushes for a more friendly, doll-like illustration.

Backgrounds

Using brush strokes to reinforce our message and set the atmosphere

For the background, I used less saturated colors than the colors I used for the characters. I wanted the children's eyes to be naturally directed to the characters without being distracted by the background.

NEXT STEPS

AR WORKBOOK

We have an AR workbook aimed to bring the learnings from the book(fictional world) into children’s physical world. However, we did not dive deep into how having children as main users for big devices (e.g. tablets) should influence our interface design. So for the next step, I want to further research and design this part.

I started conducting my own research on “Designing tablet screens for children” and plan to develop low-fidelity & high-fidelity experiences!

Google Unplug:

introducing a new way to using your Google Calendar

Safespace:

creating comfortable auditory experiences