A curious little alien leads an interactive reading app for kids — built for toddlers and independent readers alike, and quietly accessible for everyone.
DreamYards is an online education company based in San Francisco, USA, dedicated to developing learning applications for K12 children. Their mission is to make learning fun and enjoyable for kids through high-quality original content and immersive interactive experience.
The logo of the DreamYards company is a spaceship and their branding is space-themed. Kurious is their brand new interactive reading app for picture books. The name "Kurious" means that children are naturally curious and passionate about learning. They needed the Kurious brand to be a part of the DreamYards family and have its own unique personality. For this purpose, a character was created, an ignorant and energetic alien boy who is curious and enthusiastic about everything, loves to wink, and whose name is also Kurious. We crafted a variety of animations for it in order to accompany children to read and play, and to guide them in different scenarios. We are continuing to design the interface for their new features, as well as some of the design in the content.
"We Built a Kids' Reading App. Then We Realized It's an Accessibility Tool."
"Designing for a 3-Year-Old and a 10-Year-Old at the Same Time"
"What a Picture-Book App Taught Us About Inclusive Design"
Intro — The Hook (3–4 paragraphs)
Start with a real moment. Something like:
A parent emailed us. Her 6-year-old had dyslexia. She told us her kid could never finish a book on their own — until Kurious. The app read every page out loud. No one designed that feature for dyslexic kids. We built it because it was a children's reading app, and kids want to hear the story.
That moment made us realize something: half the accessibility features in our app weren't accessibility features at all. We built them for kids — and they ended up helping everyone.
Section 1 — We didn't start with accessibility. We started with a problem.
The brief: build an interactive picture-book app for kids ages 0–11.
That range is absurd. A 6-month-old needs a parent holding the phone. An 11-year-old wants to read alone. You can't design for both by making something in the middle.
The character: we created Kurious, a curious little alien boy. Not because "aliens represent diversity" — but because we needed a face kids of every background would recognize as theirs. No brown hair, no blue eyes, no specific race. Just a curious kid.
Section 2 — Feature by feature: what we built by accident
Audio narration
We added it because kids want to hear the story, not read it.
Turned out: it's a screen reader. It helps kids with dyslexia, non-native speakers, kids with visual impairments.
We didn't call it "accessibility." We called it "read to me."
Oversized tap targets
Kids have fat fingers. We made buttons huge so a toddler wouldn't miss.
Turned out: parents love it. Elderly relatives love it. Anyone with shaky hands loves it.
One-handed layout
Kids hold the phone any way they want. We put all interactive elements within thumb reach.
Turned out: it's better for commuters, better for anyone holding a coffee with the other hand.
Multiple languages (English, German, French)
We built it that way because kids in different countries use the app.
Turned out: it helps immigrant kids, bilingual families, kids learning a second language at home.
Section 3 — The hard part: it's not just about making things bigger
Accessibility isn't "enlarge the text." We had to rethink the whole interaction model.
Example: the reading flow. For a 3-year-old, every page needs a tap-to-next. For an 11-year-old, that's annoying. We solved it with a progressive experience — younger kids get guided taps, older kids get swipe.
Example: contrast. We wanted the art to look beautiful (watercolor, soft pastels). But that conflicted with readability for kids with visual impairments. We landed on high-contrast text overlays that didn't fight the illustration.
The alien character's wink animation: we made it subtle. Too fast and it overstimulates. Too slow and it's dead. Kids with sensory processing issues gave us that feedback.
Section 4 — The lesson: design for the edge user
The edge user in a kids' app isn't a "special case." It's the 3-year-old who taps randomly. It's the 10-year-old who wants to be left alone. It's the parent reading in a noisy car. It's the grandma who doesn't know where the "next" button is.
When you design for the least capable user at the table, everyone else gets a better product.
Accessibility isn't a checkbox. It's what happens when you actually watch people use your thing.
Outro — Close the loop
That parent with the dyslexic kid? She sent us a photo. Her son was sitting alone on the couch, reading a book he chose himself, for the first time.
We didn't build the app for him. We built it for kids who love stories.
But that's kind of the point.
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