Noplica: play + move + learn

Roles: from concept to finalised product

  • Concepts
  • Sketches
  • UX + UI
  • Game mechanisms
  • Prototypes design
  • Managing hardware and software team (7p)
  • Scouting voice actors
  • Sound engineering
  • Organizing and conducting hardware + software tests
  • Art Direction
  • Video production
  • Location scouting
  • Market research & Marketing
  • Identity + Branding

Problem

Young children love gaming, the app stores are full of (educational) games for young children and they can dedicate hours upon hours playing those. Parents however like to see their children active and playing outside with other children. Teachers are looking for new ways to learn new languages to young children but they don’t usually like the automation process of repeating words over and over again.

Solution – PLAY + MOVE + LEARN

Noplica is a new invention. It is an innovative way to combine playingand moving outside  with modern technology and which uses the attractiveness of gaming to learn a new language. It is a playful early childhood education center. Young children will learn the basics of a new language while playing and moving together.

Process

Me and my partner Ying Fang at Entwerpen started with organizing brainstorms with artists, educators and children to gather ideas for a solution. The original idea was to create a language park full of interactive installations. Due to time and budget constraints we decided to create a more compact solution in the form of an outside playhouse with multiple interactive installations.

We built simple prototypes to try out various interactive concepts. We setup a cooperation with the Dutch Radboud University and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen to supply us with educational material, research and learning methods. We started to integrate fun game mechanisms with educational goals and methods. The difficult part was to find the right balance between the three elements play, move and learn. After failing a couple of times we finally found the right combination through extensive user tests and iterative adjustments and started building the playhouse. This project exceeded the digital design process in many ways as I had to take into account manufacturing constraints, costs, material properties and sustainability as well.

website: https://www.noplica.nl