Csongor Farkas

WorkSocial Skills Animation

A pioneering therapy app that turns social stories into animations.

SSA is a revolutionary application that lets a therapist — on a PC, tablet, or phone — quickly transform a social story or comic strip into animation, and present it instantly to the person they are treating for a targeted therapeutic reason.

Client

Social Skills Animation

Category

Animation / UX/UI

Role

Lead Designer

Social Skills Animation app and characters

My role

  • Lead Designer
  • Establishing UX/UI guidelines
  • Gathering data from institutes
  • Character creation
  • Animation creation
  • Team supervision

The team

  • CEO & Management
  • Frontend & Backend Developers
  • Product Management
  • Ekkinisi Institute
  • Therapeutics
  • Animation Team

Deliverables

  • Therapeutic interviews
  • Workshop preparations
  • User-flow optimisation
  • Mock-ups
  • Prototypes
  • Animation library

Establishing guidelines

A competitor analysis quickly revealed there was no real competitor on the market — we were pioneering. We contacted leading institutes working with people on the autism spectrum, hoping they would recognise and support an app that could help them. After our first meetings we gained their support, and the collection of valuable data about user needs began. One of the main supporters was Autism Europe.

Workshop and research sessionWorkshop and research sessionWorkshop and research sessionWorkshop and research session

As a result of our findings, we decided to create an animation-based app: libraries of small animations that let therapists build everyday situations, helping their patients understand how to accomplish them.

Character creation

The best way to illustrate daily situations was to build characters the users could empathise with and learn from. We decided to make a family. Creation started from simple sketches and moved through iterations to the final designs.

First sketches

Character first sketchCharacter first sketchCharacter first sketchCharacter first sketch

Final illustrations

Final character illustrationFinal character illustrationFinal character illustrationFinal character illustration

Adding emotions

Character emotionsCharacter emotionsCharacter emotionsCharacter emotions

The application

There were many iterations in the process — here are just a few.

First sketches

App first sketchApp first sketchApp first sketchApp first sketchApp first sketch

First designs

App first designApp first designApp first designApp first design

Prototype in action

Create your environment inside the scene
Adding characters to the chosen scene
Basic interactions among characters
Interactions with the environment

Testing & development

The first functional prototype was tested in several institutes working with people on the autism spectrum — for example the Ekkinisi Center in Athens, Greece. Results were gathered with the help of therapists, based on real work with patients, then examined for further iterations. The app was approved by leading organisations like Autism Europe and awarded for innovation. It was a big success, and we were pioneering in creating such a tool.

Reviews

With its interactive nature, intense colours, and emphasis on optical stimulus, SSA provides strong motivation for children and adolescents on the autism spectrum. Friendly, quick, and flexible, it lets the therapist work towards multiple goals while documenting results. So far the results are wonderful — it seems SSA will be useful for every therapist.

★★★★★ — Hristina, Therapist

Clinical experience showed that an optical system can speed up learning. After three years of cooperation between our multidisciplinary team, programmers, and animators, a ready-to-use application was completed. It lets the therapist quickly transform a social story or comic strip into animation and present it instantly for a targeted therapeutic reason.