AI-powered reading assistant Rally Reader that empowers kids with tapping into their motivation
The client
Rally Reader is of Canadian origin and an assistant to teachers everywhere. Rally the bear was chosen as a mascot named after the co-founders their son, who struggled with reading. Now, the app has grown into multi-device experience paired with a teacher dashboard. It’s now rolled out across multiple schools.
Target audience
Kids aged 6 to 16 who have difficulty reading the English language. They’re struggling in class to read out loud, so their confidence takes a hit. They need to spend extra time practising. With Rally Reader, practising should be like a fun AND give appropriate feedback and challenges. The original design had a cartoon bear, not very empowering to older teens. That’s why a more neuomorphic approach is part of the brand identity.
Design challenge
Learning how to read takes repetition. Rally Reader focuses on ‘power words’ that are 70% of basic English language that form the basis. Whenever a student learns that word, it should feel like a special moment.
UX services
- User research
- Persuasion principles
- Journey maps
- Intro to Gamification workshop
- Service blueprint
- Information architecture
- Mobile-first wireframing
- User testing with teacher group
Conducted
2021
Introduction to Gamification and cognitive psychology workshop
Rally Reader was already established as a reading app when we took up the project; but to engage students further there had to be more of an intentional concept behind the app.
Something that pulls you in with every engagement without becoming overstimulating or addictive.
We workshopped game design elements, in-game currency, item collecting, choosing adventure, daily log-in rewards and side quests. The core essence of the app is that students learn ‘1000 basic English words to get a grasp of 70% of the language’
With that goal in mind we’ve created End of Chapter milestone screens, word ‘collections’ that you catch while reading and practising, a badge system and daily reading challenges.
- Target audience research, kids aged 7-17 which is a really broad group
- Brand guide and style decisions that support storytelling
- Game design elements
- Cognitive psychology and learning development
- Competitor analysis
- In-game currency
- Meaningful notification system
- Sequencing, periodic check-ins and collections
- Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Last thoughts?
This was a joy to work on and really insightful. It not only fixes a real problem that a lot of people face, it uses gamification as a force for good. Hopefully with Rally Reader we’re creating more iPad kids, as in, they’re reading until they fall asleep!
Some tale-old UX principles came in handy to redesign the app, namely B.J. Fogg’ Behaviour = Motivation + Action + Prompt and the intrinstic / extrinsic motivation model. When reading for school you’ll need a solid combination of both.
Not only the reading experience itself brought up UX challenges; pause menu’s, one’s own dashboard and the book shop all needed suitable language changes to help the users adjust. Feedback needed to be visual and inspiring so that every touchpoint feels positive.
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