“I wish I could spend the rest of the day with this app. Great across the board.” —Sean Klassen
“From interface design to motion, this is a beautifully crafted app that allows you to explore information about endangered species and goes far beyond standard editorial interfaces.” —Dustin Callif
Overview: By sharing the lives and stories of the world’s most amazing animals in a way World Wildlife Fund supporters had never seen before, AKQA enabled the community to get closer to WWF’s work and the animals they are helping to protect. The WWF Together tablet app initially launched with eight animal portraits (with additional species added regularly), the stories of which are presented through an aesthetic metaphor of origami, each with it’s own unique interactive experience.
• A news feed feature allows app users to stay current with the latest wildlife and conservation headlines.
• The iPad’s location-based services give users the chance to spin an interactive, 3-D globe and discover how far away they are from over 60 different species around the world.
• With more than one million downloads in over 150 countries, consumers have spent an equivalent of over 31 years of total time within the app.
Comments by Elizabeth Bieber:
What was the most challenging aspect of the project? “One challenge was creating an app that was engaging and educational for all ages. We needed to strike a balance of being playful, but still serious. The photography, design and tone kept a certain sophistication, but the interactive facts allowed for light-heartedness (comparing a newborn panda to a stick of butter, or seeing in ‘tiger vision’ using the iPad’s camera).
“Once the origami concept was solidified, we discovered that most patterns are proprietary. After extensive research, we worked with origami artists to create original patterns. The motion graphics team at AKQA created all of the origami in the app, requiring hours of paper-folding to achieve the end result.”
Is the audience you were targeting a particularly difficult one to reach? “WWF came to us wanting to help supporters get closer to their mission and work, so the targeting was two-fold: first, we wanted to establish a deeper level of engagement with existing WWF members and second, there was a need to create awareness within a new generation of supporters. “There was a 25 percent tablet penetration rate for U.S. adults when the project began—a rate that has since grown dramatically. We saw this as an opportunity to shape a new conversation about some of the biggest challenges on the planet through a tablet-based experience. Taking the lean-back consumption behaviors associated with tablets into consideration, we wanted to change how people learn about conservation. We decided to push the possibilities of nontraditional storytelling and present some of the most captivating facts about these species in an exploratory way.”
