Customer:
Junis
Dimh's services:
Concept development, game design,branding,
UX/UI, frontend, 3D
Lilla Ön is a digital support portal for children aged 8-12 about what it can be like to have a parent with addiction or mental illness. Together with the children, we created an interactive 3D world where children can navigate freely, explore content, and learn at their own pace.
Approximately seven children in every class in Sweden have at least one parent who suffers from addiction, mental illness, or
is exposing them to violence. Information about these parental concerns was already available online, but none of it was child-friendly or located in a place where children could find it.
That is why we at Dimh, in collaboration with Junis, decided to gather information, explore it in depth, and make it easily accessible to children.
We believe that we can make the biggest difference if we are involved from the very first idea. So we started by collecting and sorting the extensive content that the portal would offer and listening to the children to get an overall picture of their needs.
The work began with close collaboration between the project team and the target group. Even during the first meetings, we realized that there was a lot of information to convey to the children and that we needed to package it in an appealing way that children would understand. And there is no better way to form a secure and relevant foundation for the portal's concept than to involve the children themselves.
As the ideas took shape, we saw that the children wanted the freedom to explore on their own. They wanted the portal to feel more like a journey of discovery than a traditional information page.
This inspired us to develop the concept beyond a linear approach and instead create a more playful and non-hierarchical experience—a place where you can click around, find little surprises, and maybe play a game.
During this phase, we moved from the original idea of a city to the concept of a small island. The children's reactions showed that environments reminiscent of school or home risk triggering difficult memories. A freestanding island with a beach, friendly characters, and safe places provided a more harmonious and positive feeling.
Testing was central to the development process and was carried out on an ongoing basis with children in the target group. We explored several aspects of the concept to ensure that the experience was truly safe, relevant, and intuitive for the target group.
Open up conversations
Using empathy maps and short, easily accessible surveys, we created conversation situations where the children themselves could describe how a place for children with difficult home circumstances should feel and function. Through these discussions, we gained a clear picture of what expressions make children feel seen and empowered. Comments such as "You are not alone" came up often and became an important guiding principle in our continued work.
Navigation
We observed how the children got around on the island. One clear insight was that they prefer to interact directly with the environment because it gave them the feeling of "playing" and increased their curiosity and desire to explore the entire environment and absorb information.
Content
We also tested how children perceived the content and what the different places should be called. It became clear that names resembling real places, such as "recreation center," could cause discomfort. This led us to create neutral, imaginative names and relaxing environments that do not risk reminding children of difficult everyday situations.
Interactive dialogues
One popular feature was the opportunity to access information through dialogues between friendly characters. The children could listen without having to “perform,” but at the same time had the chance to influence what one of the characters would say in response. Several children chose to go back and read the same dialogue several times to test all the choices – a strong indication of engagement and relevance.
The result was a safe and imaginative island environment where children can choose how they want to absorb information, support, and knowledge. All content is distributed across different locations on the island, designed based on the children's own needs, preferences, and ways of learning. The environment is free from anything that might trigger difficult memories and filled with friendly characters who ensure that you never feel alone.
The island offers several forms of learning so that each child can find their own way of absorbing the content.
Library For those who want to read texts and books at their own pace.
CinemaFor children who prefer to take in information through films and videos.
ParkA playful place where children can learn through games and interactive activities.
BeachA peaceful environment where you can follow dialogues between friends, with the option to choose your own responses.
Help
A centralized site with quick info and links to outside support pages, so kids can easily find more help when they need it.
By combining these different forms of expression and environments, the portal creates an experience that children both recognize and want to return to. It became a place where they can explore, understand their rights, get support for their feelings, and—most importantly—feel that they are not alone.
When designing a logo, there is a lot to consider, especially how it will be used and what target audience it is aimed at. But the process does not always start there. Often, the work begins with exploring and playing with words to see what possibilities there are.
The letter "Ö" is not entirely easy to work with, but in this case it was central. It needed to be perceived as friendly and memorable, appeal to a target audience ranging from children to older people, be easy to read, and at the same time impossible to forget. It had to be creative and convey as much of the essence of the small island as possible.
In the end, we settled on the logo shown on the right in the image: with a small "lilla" (small), a heart/butterfly, and an "Ö" (island) that actually takes the shape of an island.
These are some of the characters that live on the island where the children stay. The design is simple and carefully chosen. The characters are non-humanoid, which contributes to a more accessible and open approach towards the children. It also makes it easier to talk about important and sometimes difficult topics when they are not represented by human figures.
An important part of the work on the graphic identity has been to create conditions for a smooth compliance process. By developing easy-to-use templates, we make it simple to produce presentations and market the project in various contexts. We have therefore developed a series of ready-made pages that offer great flexibility and cover as many conceivable needs within presentation and project documentation as possible.
