Wordlike Playground

Inspiration

We wanted to work on something that could have a significant impact upfront through just a small tweak. Many technological solutions out there are extravagantly created only to solve a problem at a smaller scale. Our focus was on creating the largest impact given the shortest amount of time we had so we carefully strategized the below solution amongst others which we brainstormed

What it does

The application extends Quill's single-player game Wordlike into a two-player game that creates incentives for kids to play. By gamifying the interaction through a competitive points system where players can leverage limited-time opportunities to advance their score against their game, we are able to instill a larger send of urgency amongst the user base. With an effective user adoption and launch plan, this gamified modification can drastically widen Quill's reach and expand their efforts.

How we built it

We used React.js, Node.js, Express.js, Gulp as our framework to create a web application

Challenges we ran into

Trying to figure out which features were the best for gamification and figuring out for which users should we be focusing design on (middle schoolers, high school, elementary school, ESL, etc.).

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were able to create a fully-fledged concept that we can easily see being continued. We made tangible the exact idea we came in with and were passionate about.

What we learned

Learned a lot about a more "agile" development process. Frequently reassessing our direction helped us determine what the best direction for us was.

What's next for Wordlike Playground

We want create a higher fidelity prototype and engage is some user research/user studies/contextual inquiry to get feedback on our approach as soon as possible. It would be extremely useful as well to chat with the Quill team to hear their thoughts. In terms of specifics features, the following not in any specific priority: chat feature, power-ups, mobile presence.

Built With

• express.js
• gulp
• node.js
• react
• react-router
• sass
• socket.io