App + Web Design
Sasol - Young Explorer: Mammals
Designing an engaging, educational digital experience for children
Overview
This project involved designing a digital companion experience for a children’s educational book, aimed at making learning about mammals more interactive and engaging.
The goal was to translate static content into a playful, accessible digital product that encourages exploration and learning.
The Problem
The challenge was to transform dense educational content into an experience that is:
Easy for children to navigate independently
Visually engaging and interactive
Structured to support learning without overwhelming users
Balancing educational value with simplicity and engagement was key.
My Role
As Product Designer, I was responsible for:
Designing the user experience and interface for the app
Structuring content into clear, navigable sections
Creating interactive and engaging UI patterns
Ensuring the experience was intuitive for younger users
Collaborating with stakeholders to align on content and design direction
Approach
I focused on simplifying content and structure to support easy, self-guided exploration.
Content was broken into clear, digestible sections, supported by strong visual hierarchy and intuitive navigation. Interactive elements were introduced to make learning more engaging, while maintaining clarity and ease of use.
Special attention was given to readability, touch-friendly interactions, and reducing cognitive load to ensure the experience is accessible for younger users.
UX Design Highlights.
Learn and Play:
The app boasts 2 main sections geared towards educating our children, and that in 4 different languages.
Learn.
In the learn section, the user can find out about the mammal they selected in the slider at the bottom of the screen. They can read about it, or hear it narrated to them, in the language of their choice. The microphone icon allows them to record themself, useful when learning how to say the mammal’s name in a different language for example. The play icon on the left pops up a video of the mammal in the wild.
The icons on the right reveal information about the mammal within the magnifying glass; what they eat, their size, what their tracks look like and whether or not they’re nocturnal.
Best feature… the kids tapping the animal in the centre image to hear the sound it makes!
Play.
Learning continues in the “Play” section where 4 games were developed to inspire more curiosity about nature. In the 1st game the child can drag litter into the coloured recycle bins, more mammals appear and the scene becomes more lush with each correct attempt. Games 2 and 3 are a memory match and puzzle game respectively. The 4th game involved matching the correct mammal image to the name that appeared in the center of the chalkboard.
Outcome
The final product is an engaging, easy-to-use educational experience that brings the content to life in a digital format.
The design:
Makes learning more interactive and engaging
Improves navigation and content discoverability
Supports independent use by younger users
Creates a cohesive and enjoyable user experience
Value Added
Transformed static educational content into an interactive digital experience
Improved accessibility and usability for younger audiences
Structured complex information into clear, digestible content flows
Increased engagement through intuitive interactions and visual design
Website.
I designed a website as a marketing tool for this project: www.youngexplorerapp.com
Marketing.
I proposed that we get parents to take mobile videos of their kids interacting with our app. I then edited the videos into their own commercials and added them to the YouTube channel for people to enjoy and easily share. The result was adorable.
Sasol Young Explorer: “Too long!”