Their drawing. The hero of their story.
Every drawing becomes a fairy tale, with the child's own creation as its hero. Coloria connects colouring, imagination and storytelling in a creativity app for children.
- Role
- Product design, art direction & development
- When
- 2026 · unreleased prototype
- Where
- iPhone & iPad · English & Greek
Challenge
Turn a child's drawing into the hero of a real fairy tale — and make the journey from colouring to storytelling simple enough for a child to follow.
Approach
Connect making a picture to discovering its story. Draw, Magic and My Stuff give children a clear path from their own artwork to a fairy tale starring their creation, with grown-up decisions behind a parent gate.
Result
An iPhone and iPad prototype delivered to TestFlight. Public release and the accompanying service rollout remained separate, unfinished steps.
What it is
The short version
From drawing to fairy tale: follow the same child-coloured cat from the canvas into its own illustrated adventure. Choose the colours, make the hero, then open a story that belongs to them.
Every drawing becomes a real fairy tale, with the child's own creation as its hero. A picture they have coloured is the starting point for a story about that very character: the child makes the hero, then discovers its adventure.
Coloria starts with a picture and a set of colours. Children can draw, fill areas, save their artwork and return to it later. Finished pictures feed a wider world of stories, badges, places and a customisable buddy.
Magic extends the idea into prompts, photo outlines and stories. The product separates the child's creative actions from the parent's decisions about permissions, cloud processing and purchases. Voice guidance has tap or typed alternatives, and the interface supports both English and Greek.
Process
How it was built
- 01
Let the child create the hero
Start with their own drawing, then turn it into a fairy tale with that creation in the leading role. Draw, Magic and My Stuff connect the act of making the picture to discovering and keeping its story.
- 02
Make the artwork earn the reward
Opening a blank canvas should not count as progress. Completion, rewards and world unlocks were tied to the artwork, so reopening an animation could not keep generating rewards.
- 03
Give grown-ups their own space
Parent controls were designed separately from the creative flow: permissions, language, limits and purchases belong behind a gate rather than on a child's canvas.
- 04
Take the design onto real screens
The native SwiftUI app was developed for iPhone and iPad, with bilingual UI, accessible canvas controls and alternatives to microphone use. The recorded delivery reached TestFlight; that was a prototype milestone, not a public launch.
Outcome
Where it landed
A developed creativity app built around a personal promise: every drawing can become a fairy tale starring the child's creation. Drawing, fill, saved work, a world map and buddy customisation support that experience. The August handoff records build 33 as processed and VALID on TestFlight.
Coloria did not launch publicly. Backend rollout, product configuration and release work were still pending, so there are no adoption or commercial results to claim.
Lesson
What it cost me to learn
A creative tool for children needs two kinds of simplicity: freedom on the canvas, and clear boundaries around everything that asks for a grown-up decision.