AhhaOhho : Kids, Be Curious

Children’s Creative Learning App

✂️ Project

AhhaOhho is a creative learning app designed to help children rediscover their curiosity, express their ideas, and build confidence through self-directed creation.
Developed at FutureLab, the platform blends playful exploration, AI feedback, and gamified interactions to foster a safe, creativity-driven environment where kids can learn through curiosity, trial, and iteration at their own pace.

As the product design lead, I shaped the end-to-end user experience of AhhaOhho; from user research to gamified design strategies and prototyping that support tinkering, remixing, and peer-to-peer learning.

Company: Smilegate Futurelab Foundation
Deliverable: Mobile App (ios, android)
Role: Product Design Lead (Strategy, Research, IA, Prototyping, Interface)
Timeline: 2024 Q3 ~ ongoing
Platform: Mobile

✂️ Context & Challenge

Project Ahha Ohho addresses two main challenges :
1. The structural inequality in Korea’s education system

Korea’s education system places overwhelming emphasis on standardized testing, leading to extreme disparities between students from different socioeconomic backgrounds. A recent survey shows that middle to high-income families spend 5x more on private education than low-income families, widening the gap in both opportunity and learning experience. Even when new learning formats like STEAM or maker programs are introduced, access still follows the same divide. These resources tend to reach kids from wealthier families, while those in low-income or rural areas are left out once again.

2. Children’s over-dependencies on smartphone and their graphic content consumption

Mobile device ownership among children is higher than ever. Over 90% of 6th graders now own smartphones, and the government is pushing digital learning even further by distributing free devices. But how kids actually use these devices matters is a real problem.

Children from lower income households or rural region not only have higher smartphone ownership rates, but they also spend more time on their phones, often passively consuming short-form content or inappropriately graphic materials. These devices hold incredible creative potential, but without guidance, they often become tools for distraction rather than expression.

✂️ Product Definition

✏️ Product Objective

AhhaOhho fosters a creative environment for kids to engage with technology; not just to consume, but to explore, create, and share. By turning smartphones into tools for curiosity and self-expression, AhhaOhho focuses on making creative learning more accessible and giving kids agency to engage with technology as creators / problem-solvers

✏️ Product Identity

A creative-learning community app designed to help children rediscover their curiosity, express their ideas, and build confidence through making and sharing

✏️ Core Service Value

  • Explore through curiosity

  • Tangible, hands-on experiences

  • Iteration through peer feedback & social engagement

✏️ User Persona

✂️ Storyboard (Early Concept)

✂️ Generative Research & Persona Segmentation

✏️ Research through observational studies and facilitator interviews

✎ Objective

  • Understand traits of different educational environments and their digital maturity (devices, network, digital tools/technology provided, etc..)

  • Identify use cases and Persona segmentation for AhhaOhho

  • Assess needs and pain points from different user types

✂️ Design Approach

✏️ Building a consensus : “what does a creative environment mean to team AhhaOhho”

4 Pillars of AhhaOhho :
Inspiring Encounters • Creative Expression • Playful Engagement • Equitable Opportunities
These principle(pillars) shape AhhaOhho’s content, space, and culture: open‑ended making, mutual learning, safe failure, and delightful iteration

✏️ Primary User flow : Spiral Process of learning / tinkering

Curiosity(Browse) → Attempt(Make) → Record/Share → Feedback → Iterate

✏️ Facilitation Strategy : Interactive Emotional Scaffolding

  • Personalized content curation

  • Tailored questions

  • Chunk Instruction

  • Individualized AI feedback

✏️ Gamification Strategy (derived from Octalysis framework)

✎ Narrative & Role Assignment

  • Users join a mission-driven world with characters and streak-based onboarding rewards that boost early engagement

✎ Achievement Visualization

  • Dashboard displays badges, levels, and quest progress to help users track their growth and feel accomplishment

✎ Creative Empowerment

  • Missions allow free expression, remixing, and profile decoration. AI-guided prompts scaffold hesitant users

✎ Peer Interaction

  • Social feedback (e.g., emoji reactions, peer feed) builds relatedness and encourages iteration

✎ Content Timing

  • Limited-time quests and level-based content unlocks add momentum without pressure

✎ Surprise & Delight

  • Random rewards and visual storytelling spark curiosity and sustained exploration

✂️ Key Design Decisions & Implementation

✏️ Wireframe & Iterations

wireframe and lo-fi prototypes (for early testing)

✏️ Testing & Iterations
After numerous testing and interviews with children and facilitators, we’ve learned that

  • Navigation & mental model felt fuzzy in places

  • Error pockets during media handling

  • “Slide‑up” affordance wasn’t obvious

  • Rewards & profile decoration motivated, but guidance was too light

  • Discovery worked, but ranking logic needs tuning

  • Privacy surfaced as a hesitation for sharing

  • Need age‑appropriate language for prompts and system modal

  • Wider challenge difficulty & example projects
    Need: From ice‑breakers to advanced challenges; teachers asked “how far can this go?”
    Iteration (planned): Expand difficulty ladder; provide sample projects per activity to set expectations. (p.10)

  • Operational constraints in materials/contexts.
    Need: Activities that fit varying supply and outdoor constraints.
    Iteration (planned): Alternative “no‑material / low‑material” paths and context tags in challenges. (p.10)

  • Peer feedback that fuels motivation, not anxiety.
    Need: Safer, lighter text feedback to support creation.
    Iteration (planned): Prompted micro‑comments and educator moderation tools; link to profile view for peer learning. (p.10–11)

  • Level‑up & curation for “what’s next.”
    Need: Clear next steps, references for remix/iteration, and a path to “expert communities.”
    Iteration (planned): Level‑based recommendations, curated references (books/YouTube), and an advanced creators’ hub. (pp.10–11)

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