Redesigned the Burke Museum’s digital experience for kids by creating a playful visual identity and a modular design system.
Team
4 UX Designer (Me)
Skills
Design System
UI Design
Illustration
Branding
Tools
Figma
Ilustrator
Timeline
Apr 2025 - Jun 2025
HIGHLIGHT
ABOUT Burke Kids
Burke Kids is a project developed through Design Systems for Digital Experience (INFO 462) course at the University of Washington. Focused on the Burke Museum’s kid’s interface, this project combines visual storytelling and atomic design principles to build a modular, accessible UI system for kids aged 5–12. From custom illustrations to developer-ready Figma components, Burke Kids balances creativity and consistency—allowing children to navigate independently while offering a scalable foundation for future digital growth.
WHAT I DID
Rebranded the Burke Museum’s digital presence into a playful sub-brand, Burke Kids, by developing a child-friendly visual identity rooted in imagination, science, and accessibility.
Designed a robust component library in Figma with documentation and naming standards to support scalability and developer handoff.
Illustrated 10+ custom assets tailored to children's visual comprehension, aligning with Burke’s natural science themes.
IMPACT SUMMARY
😌
100% usability satisfaction
achieved among child participants, confirming intuitive navigation and age-appropriate interaction design
⏰️
2x faster
task completion by kids when using redesigned interface elements.
🗂️
1 scalable component library
delivered in Figma alongside a developer-ready handoff package, laying groundwork for future digital expansion.
CONTEXT
A FORGOTTEN USER GROUP
Did you know that the Burke Museum, despite being a popular destination for school-aged children, offers little digital content designed for them? The current website is adult-focused, with limited visual engagement, complex navigation, and accessibility issues for kids. This gap limits how young visitors can explore and learn. Our goal is to fix this by designing a kid-friendly digital experience through a Burke Kids sub-brand and a modular, scalable design system.
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
🎙️ Interviews
We interviewed children ages 5–12 to understand their digital habits, museum interests, and interaction preferences.
📊 Market Research
We analyzed top children/museum websites to identify common design patterns, visual styles, and accessibility practices.
📑 Literature Review
We reviewed research on child-centered design and usability for kids to gain insights on age-appropriate interaction, playful learning experience, and accessibility,
COMPLAINTS FROM KIDS
Through the research, we discovered that children are mostly not familiar with websites, so they respond best to vibrant, interactive environments with large buttons, animations, and playful illustrations. To support their cognitive development, interfaces must remain simple, using minimal text, intuitive icons, and clear, structured layouts that make navigation easy and fun.
THE KIDS’ WEBSITES
As part of our market research, we studied several existing children’s museum websites to understand how design systems can effectively engage young users. This research revealed key principles—like bold colors, minimal text, large clickable elements, and micro interactions—that informed our own approach to designing an age-appropriate and intuitive experience for Burke Kids.
UNDERSTANDING BURKE
To better understand the Burke Museum’s identity, we visited the museum in person and participated in a tour led by one of the educators. The instructor walked us through the museum’s history, values, and cultural legacy—emphasizing its transparency in their work and exhibits. We gained insight into how the museum connects education with storytelling. This experience informed us with key design and branding decisions for Burke Kids, ensuring our work remained respectful, relevant, and aligned with the museum’s voice.
Principle
🎉 Playful
Use vibrant visuals, animations, and interactive elements to make learning feel like play.
✨ Positive
Use friendly shapes and language to build a lighthearted environment for education
💪 Accessible
Use inclusive colors, simple layouts, and clear language for children of all abilities.
Style Guide
Before
After
COLOR
We retained Burke’s red to preserve brand continuity but replaced green—an inaccessible choice for colorblind users—with brown, inspired by the natural materials used in the museum’s architecture, like wood and dirt. To evoke a sense of openness and sky-bound imagination, we added blue, creating a palette that feels both grounded and expansive, which is perfect for a world where prehistoric creatures and scientific discovery collide.
TYPOGRAPHY
To match Burke Kids’ playful and approachable tone, I chose Fredoka for display text because its rounded forms and soft geometry feel friendly and childlike while staying highly legible. For body text, Nunito Sans offers a clean, readable balance, maintaining approachability while enhancing usability across screen sizes.
Original
First Attempt
Final Design
LOGO
To ensure brand recognition, I incorporated the distinctive “fossil spine” shape from the original Burke Museum logo into the new Burke Kids mark—transforming it into the dinosaur’s spine. The new rounded dinosaur skull, illustrated with a playful, cartoon-like style, pays homage to Burke’s natural history legacy while reimagining it through the lens of childhood wonder.
Design System
DESIGN WITH INTENTION
Before diving into the design process, here’s a snapshot of the complete component library developed for Burke Museum Kids, structured using the Atomic Design methodology. Starting from the smallest building blocks, every component was purposefully crafted to be playful, engaging, and accessible for young users.
FRIENDLY FORMS & SHAPES
Rounded corners and soft edges create a welcoming, positive visual language.
ILLUSTRATION BASED
To create an engaging and age-appropriate visual experience, I illustrated over 10 custom art assets in Adobe Illustrator, including dinosaurs, plants, and environmental elements.
TANGIBLE INTERACTIONS
Components like buttons were given a 3D, tactile appearance to mimic real-world objects, helping children recognize interactive elements at a glance.
Bold & Legible
Large and high-contrast typography and oversized touch targets ensure clarity for early readers and users with limited web experience.
Playful Interactivity
Subtle animations and responsive feedback make navigation feel natural, guiding children through the site with confidence and curiosity.
Result
WIREFRAMING & PROTOTYPING
After finalizing the complete design system and visual assets, I moved into wireframing to test how well the system translated into real user flows. These wireframes were then turned into interactive prototypes, allowing us to observe how children navigated and interacted with the components in context.
😌
100% usability satisfaction
achieved among child participants, confirming intuitive navigation and age-appropriate interaction design
⏰️
2x faster
task completion by kids when using redesigned interface elements.
IMPACT
These interactive prototypes were tested with a group of 10 child participants in a moderated usability session. Tasks included navigating between sections, identifying clickable elements, and completing simple objectives (e.g., finding specific content or interacting with illustrations). Observations focused on navigation clarity, recognition of interactive elements, and task efficiency. Image above is the result.
Take Aways
WHAT I LEARNED
I gained hands-on experience creating a modular, scalable design system in Figma, structured with Atomic Design principles. Building for children required me to think beyond aesthetics, ensuring every component was intuitive, forgiving, and visually engaging for first-time web users.
I also learned how to adapt an existing brand into a playful sub-brand that still aligns with its parent identity, maintaining consistency while introducing a fresh, kid-focused personality. This project deepened my understanding of how a well-built design system can streamline design, enhance usability, and shape a memorable user experience.