WordWorld

PBS Kids


Building from our work with preschool brands like Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Teletubbies, PBS KIDS brought Bean onboard to create interactive adventures and literacy games for the hit show’s app and website.

Visit the site

Download the app

Read the case study


Awards

  • Adobe MAX Award: PBS Kids: WordWorld (2008)
  • Interactive Media Awards: Best in Class: Kids (2008)
  • International Academy of the Visual Arts: Davey Awards: Silver Award: Branding (2008)
  • International Academy of the Visual Arts: Davey Awards: Silver Award: Youth (2008)
  • International Academy of the Visual Arts: W3 Awards: Gold Award: Television (2008)
  • International Academy of the Visual Arts: W3 Awards: Silver Award: Children (2008)
  • Web Marketing Association WebAwards: Outstanding Website (2008)

Top Charting Positions in iTunes App Store

  • #2 in Educational Games (iPad)
  • #5 in Kids Games (iPad)
  • #8 in Educational Games (iPhone)
  • #30 in Kids Games (iPhone)
  • Top 75 of all Games (iPad)
  • Top 100 of all Apps (iPad)
  • Featured in Education

Accolades

Tags

Animation, Copywriting, Graphic Design, Interactives / Games, Mobile, Programming / Database, Site Architecture, Third Party Tools, Usability / Accessibility, User Interface Design, Kids, Education, Television & Film

<p>The WordWorld: Fun with WordFriends iOS app skyrocketed to the top 5 of iTunes Educational Game apps in just a few short weeks, and has remained a top PBS KIDS app (along with our <a href='/work.cfm?workID=34'>SUPER WHY! app</a>).</p> <p>Instead of a “table of contents” homepage, the website launches right into an interactive adventure. Here, Frog and Duck are building the word ‘balloon’ for Dog’s surprise party.</p> <p><a href='http://pbskids.org/wordworld/characters/game_dlp.html' target='_blank'>Dog’s Letter Pit game</a> helps kids recognize letter shapes and sounds, with letters morphing into words as the payoff.</p> <p>All the words you find and make in the site are available in My Word Space, a free-form creative play space.</p>

Case Study

Challenges

The Bean Team was tasked to bring the world and characters of WordWorld to life in web and app environments, allowing kids to go on adventures with the characters to solve problems using words, sounds and letters.


Solutions

The WordWorld: Fun with WordFriends app for iOS includes three fun word learning games, teaching letters, letter sounds and word families while experiencing the lush settings and favorite characters of WordWorld. Game rewards include collectible stickers and videos from the TV show.

A special parent area lets you see how well players are learning to help guide them toward greater letter and word knowledge.

For the website, we designed and developed four adventures, each with immersive problem-solving games, letter and word challenges and a full-screen video payoff at the successful conclusion.

In both the app and website, kids earn WordThing stickers as they explore and complete games, which can be used to make their own pictures in My Word Space, a creative play area.

And both the app and website have been optimized to highlight WordWorld’s rich animation and video assets across the desktop and app environments.


Results

Parents and kids alike have flocked to the app and website, thanks to their humorous storylines, age-appropriate lessons and innovative methods to introduce preschoolers to key literacy-based skills.

The app immediately jumped to the top of the charts, and it continues to expand its user base, garner exceptional reviews and generate income for WordWorld and PBS KIDS.


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