Empathy Explorer is a mobile-first app designed to make learning about emotions and empathy fun and interactive for children. This project, developed as part of the Google UX Certificate, introduces young learners to emotional intelligence through engaging stories, immersive games, and reflective journal activities. As the UX Designer and Researcher, I focused on crafting a playful, intuitive experience that helps children build empathy while allowing parents to guide their child’s emotional journey.
Many children find it challenging to understand their own emotions and empathize with others. Traditional methods of teaching these concepts often fail to engage them effectively, leading to a gap in emotional intelligence. Empathy Explorer was created to fill this gap by offering immersive, story-driven experiences that simplify emotional learning and make it more relatable for young minds.
The goal of Empathy Explorer was to develop a playful, engaging platform that empowers children to learn about empathy in a meaningful way. By blending interactive stories, emotion-based games, and guided journaling, the app encourages children to explore and express their emotions while making connections to the real world. The platform aims to make emotional intelligence accessible and enjoyable for both children and their parents.
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Figma
I conducted in-depth interviews with parents and children to gain insights into their emotional learning needs. Parents expressed a desire for more age-appropriate, engaging content to teach empathy, while children enjoyed interactive, adventure-like experiences that held their attention. These findings informed key design decisions, ensuring that the app would offer a memorable learning journey by catering to diverse learning styles and providing interactive, personalized experiences for young users.
For the design process, I integrated Polaris - Shopify's design system, to ensure consistency and ease of use throughout the app. Polaris provided a well-documented framework of design patterns and components that allowed me to focus on the creative aspects while maintaining accessibility and user-friendliness. This choice ensured a cohesive visual language that children and parents would find intuitive and engaging, ultimately expediting the design timeline and ensuring a polished final product.
To better understand how the app engages children with interactive stories and guided journaling, explore the interactive prototype linked below. It highlights key features such as the playful onboarding experience, story-driven activities, and emotion-exploration exercises that make learning about empathy fun and relatable.
