“One look at Whaddya Wanna Know?, and I thought, ‘My nine-year-old would love this.’ Someone clearly understands that a little fun goes a long way when kids are curious.” —juror Libby Bawcombe
“This is one of my favorite pieces this year. I love how the interface helps you navigate a fairly complex database of videos in a way that feels seamless and intentional. I usually think of interactive videos as clunky and chunky, but the way they handle the transitions and choice points really helps this feel like a video version of Wikipedia, and it’s educational! Sign me up.” —juror Phillip Tiongson
Overview: Welcome to Whaddya Wanna Know?, an interactive show where you can learn a lot about a little or a little about a lot. Created by ad agency Technology, Humans and Taste, this online trivia game has no map or agenda and is guided simply by your interests. You can learn about anything from banana DNA to corgi butts, then quiz yourself to see how much you know and earn shareable badges. Feel free to fall in love with anything you see—all props, topics, wallpapers and GIFs are fully shoppable.
The target audience is millennial moms.
There are more than 180 visual assets in the experience.
The project was built in the eko player, with additional JavaScript.
Comments by Technology, Humans and Taste:
Did you meet with any out-of-the-ordinary obstacles during development? “We wanted to evolve the search experience from a tactical product focus to something more akin to a clickhole, beyond the boundaries of time or content. So, we had to know everything our target cared about and build a world for her to explore. The paper trail for this project was tremendous. The script ended up being 500 pages, with 20 topics and roughly 10 facts per topic, requiring an immense amount of research. To test it, we made a playable paper prototype with roughly 200 Post-it notes, which offered 2.5 hours of unique playthrough. Keeping track of every prop and art direction nuance on top of the 80 pages of user experience documentation was a definite challenge with our production and development partners. The final master flow was unprintable—21 tabloid-sized pages and 30 feet long.”
Are there any special navigational features? “The Mind Map contains all of the topics visually; it’s a table of contents without the structure of one, and keeps the exploratory structure. Two hands appear to help you navigate the experience. After a piece of trivia, you can stay in that topic, switch to a related topic or go to the Mind Map to pick a new topic. We also chose to keep the navigation element simple; while the hands change according to topic, there are only four choices on any given scene.”
How did this project compare with others you’ve worked on in the past? “The interactive videos we’ve made in the past have a tree-branched story structure with a finite number of pathways through the experience. This one is the most unstructured from a pathway perspective. It’s very much like a free-flowing conversation with a genius named Louise. Bending the technology to accommodate the structure was one of the many challenges we faced.”
