Meena: a children's app for UNICEF's Meena character

Meena is UNICEF’s cartoon character for South Asia: a spirited nine-year-old girl from a Bangladeshi village whose stories are loved by children and families across the region. This app brings her stories to phones, so children can read, watch, draw and play with Meena and her family.

The app design was done for UNICEF by Masum Rana, founder of Premium Design Company.

What was designed

• Home: one scrolling page with comics, videos, an introduction to Meena, colouring books, recent updates, a selfie feature and the Meena game, each with its own “see all”.
• About Meena: profiles of Meena, her brother Raju, and her mother and father, each with a picture and a short story.
• Videos: the episodes as large, tappable cards.
• Draw: colouring pages of the characters that children fill in on screen.
• Take a selfie: a camera mode that puts Meena, Raju or Meethu the parrot in the photo with the child.

Design decisions

Made for small hands and early readers. Every section is a row of large picture cards with short titles. Children can find anything by the picture alone, without reading menus.

Bright, but organised. The colours come from the cartoon itself, while each section keeps the same layout: a title, a “see all” button and a row of cards.

Doing, not just watching. Colouring, selfies and the game turn the app from a video player into something children take part in, and give them more reasons to come back to the stories.

Local language kept. Bangla stories keep their Bangla titles, and videos are labelled by language, so children find episodes they can follow.

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