This research is about a redesign of the online and mobile app African Storybook (ASb) initiative services that support the creation of openly licensed storybooks for Africa. This redesign was initiated after a review of the ASb web site. The redesign makes use of cultural-historical activity theory principles, including: object of activity, tool mediated and third-generation activity system shared objects. Three primary activities were identified (read, author and research). The author activity (a shared object) includes library, create, translate and adapt objects of activity. Each object makes use of a single design pattern that includes a list of items that can be sorted, searched and viewed. Results from usability testing lead to a refined design and provided evidence that redesign addresses problems identified during the review. This research illustrated that the reading, authoring and research objects created by individuals support new storybook production.