Phonics re-imagined for Oxford University Press
Initial discovery
In 2023, Lingumi partnered with Oxford University Press to digitise their phonics workbooks, using interaction and gamification to engage young learners. We began with key discovery work with children in China, where Oxford has a significant customer base both at home and in schools. Although the project details are under an NDA, I can share some insights.
We created a set of five lessons based on the first Oxford Phonics World books, featuring a human teacher—a unique selling point for Lingumi—and a fully animated world that brought Oxford's characters to life with sound and animation. However, the feedback was mixed; parents and children felt the lessons lacked a clear narrative and structure, which reduced motivation.
Realising that directly adopting the book's structure wasn't effective, we took a more radical approach. We incorporated a narrative and journey at the core of the experience, maintaining the Oxford methodology but enhancing it with a more gamified, engaging format.
Creating a narrative
As a massive Nintendo fan, I often draw inspiration from Mario. When we needed to establish a clear narrative and journey across a course of over 50 lessons, I thought of the classic Mario games where players travel through a world map, inching closer to Bowser's castle.
This approach seemed like a fun way to experience new lessons. Additionally, a recent blog post from Duolingo supported this idea, describing how their shift from a learning tree to a linear path improved students' listening and reading scores.
let's-a-go!
We shared our concepts with the Oxford team, and they loved it! They had a few minor suggestions, but overall, we got the green light to move forward. We're now ready to commit to a new series of experiments, producing another set of five lessons for the Chinese market.
I am in charge of the art direction, UI/UX, illustration, animation, and anything else I can get my hands on. While I can’t go into too much detail due to the NDA, I am able to share some illustrated storyboards that will be going into production. Below are some screenshots of our hero robot character being attacked by an evil sea crab. Also shown are some activities that will be part of the lesson including tracing and multiple choice questions to identify the correct sound and object.
