Safe Steps

Safe Steps is a learning app where teenagers and parents progress together through shared lessons. Each experience combines video, reflection, and real-world discussion — turning soft skills into something practiced, not just taught. The goal of this work was to create a detailed, high-fidelity prototype to validate the concept and support investor discussions

UI & Product Designer

2021

App Design · UI Design · UX Design · Concept Design

The Challenge

One shared interface, two very different users — teenagers engaging with activities, parents guiding and tracking progress. The experience needed to feel motivating for teens without losing clarity for parents.

My Role

I worked alongside one colleague who led the discovery and research phase. I contributed to the VPC workshop and customer profiling, then owned the UI and final prototype end-to-end.

Designing for a Shared Experience

Lessons followed a four-stage flow: video → quiz → family discussion → community discussion. Each stage has a different emotional register — passive, reflective, intimate, shared — and the UI had to signal that shift without feeling like four separate apps.

The hardest call was tone: warm enough for a 14-year-old, clear enough for a parent reviewing the same screen.

Illustration

The app is shared by two people who don't usually learn side by side: a teenager and a parent. Literal illustration would have picked a side. I went abstract instead — soft, gradient characters with just enough expression to read as emotion rather than as an age.

Two registers, one voice:

Characters carry the lessons. Blobby, a little odd, expressive — warm without tipping into childish.
Botanical line work handles the quieter moments: progress, feedback, the profile. Calmer, more grown-up — a counterweight so the app never reads too young.

The restraint is the point. Ample negative space, a tight palette, one serif (Calluna) doing the emotional lifting against a plain sans (Work Sans). The illustration brings the warmth; the layout keeps it credible to the parent holding the same phone.

Delivered as a high-fidelity interactive prototype and promo video for investor and stakeholder presentations.

Outcome

Delivered as a high-fidelity interactive prototype and promo video for investor and stakeholder presentations.

‹ Shiken

Hedgehog - Zobi ›