The task

Minderoo Foundation is an Australian philanthropic organisation, striving to solve major global challenges across the world. Thrive By Five, one of their key initiatives, is focusing on early childhood development and has for aim to empower communities to ensure every child has the best start to life.

The foundation tasked B.B.E. to create an Android and iOS application for parents and care givers to guide them in that process through content that is easy to understand, culturally relevant, and underpinned by the latest neuroscience.

Challenges

Aside from a challenging deadline for the MVP launch, the application was set to be distributed to diverse regions of the world (Asia, Middle-East, Africa, etc.). This implied obstacles ranging from low connectivity, cultural distinctions and potential low literacy, as well as languages and wrtting systems differences.

We partnered with local organisations from each country in order to support us collecting the necessary information and data to overcome these challenges. We also teamed up with the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre, who directed the scientific research upon which the content has been developed.

Identity exploration and ideation

As the lead designer on this project, I was tasked to develop the product’s visual identity, ranging from the creation of a colour palette, selection of fonts, and exploration and design of an app icon.

In parallel, we’ve engaged with the client in design sprints split in few workshops, which led to identify our users need and shaped the architecture of our app. This helped me establish and refine a user flow, produce wireframes and generate a prototype for internal tests.

Design system and UI development

Working in an agile environment, I collaborated closely with the development team to make sure the UI would be easy to implement. With our users at the centre of our process and accessibility in mind, I developed a Design System, and continued to refine it while advancing on the UI design front.

The result is a fun, engaging, inclusive and localised product, available on both the App Store and Google Play in 10+ countries.