Yoleo
A gamified reading app and learning platform designed to help students with reading difficulties, such as dyslexia, rediscover the joy of reading.
Loads of kids unfortunately have trouble reading. In many countries, the Netherlands included, reading skills have been getting worse over the past decades. There is a solution to this problem. To become better at reading, you simply need to read more. But what if you don’t like to read?
That’s where Yoleo can help. It makes reading a fun challenge that is playful and motivating. They get the technological support they need to start reading and the rewards to continue reading. It will transform reading books from frustrating to enjoyable.
"My son never used to read. With Yoleo, he reads 40 pages in one day."
Question.
"How can we get students who have trouble reading to read more?"
Learning Outcome
"I never liked reading because I thought it was hard and boring. Now it's going so much better and I actually enjoy it. I can't wait to get a new book!"
Reading is more than a skill.
The skill of reading is essential if you want to read a book. It's not the only thing you need however, to get you reading. Reading a book is about entering a different world, using your imagination, empathizing with the characters, gaining new perspectives and learning new things. That's what this learning experience is all about!
Research.
Students who are bad at reading don't enjoy reading books. It's hard for them, takes too much time and makes them feel like they are failing. The number one thing to get better at reading is... reading more. If you read a lot, you will get better at reading. The opposite is also true. The less you read, the worse it gets.
Our client Dedicon came up with a clever way to support readers. Similar to karaoke, each word you read is highlighted at a pace that suits the reader. At the same time, the book is narrated. You read along with the narrator which makes it possible for anyone to read a book. We were asked to take this proven concept and design an engaging learning experience that is able to take full advantage of the narration.
Characteristics
This learning experience is designed for students in primary education between the age of six to twelve. What they all have in common is difficulty with reading, but in other ways they are very diverse.
We found out that girls and boys generally have different motivations to read. For examaple, girls tend to enjoy how stories can evoke emotions while boys enjoy adventure, action and learning something new. These are generalisations and the last thing we'd want to do is create separate environments for boys and girls. Instead we choose to offer a variety in functionalities and options for students to use. Still, understanding these motivations helps us create a learning experience that works for all.
Strategy
When you struggle with reading, you tend to have negative associations and experiences with books. For example, you might feel like failing when you don't finish a book. That's why we need to offer some kind of positive experience with reading when you use Yoleo as soon as possible.
Supporting the reader isn't enough to get students excited about books. That's why this learning experience goes beyond supporting the skill of reading into the joy of reading. This requires an environment where they can express themselves, share their experiences, celebrate their progress and have fun.
Since we are dealing with a diverse group of learners, we want to ensure that the environment and activities we design fulfill different needs.
Learning objectives
Becoming a better reader starts with a change in perspective by gaining the insight that reading can be enjoyable instead of frustrating. As you read, your knowledge expands by learning how words are written and you discover new words. With the right support, your reading skills develop quickly and you start to have fun reading books. This leads to a behavior change where you look forward to reading more books, which leads to an upward spiral.
Design.
The design of Yoleo is a combination of a clever reading app with an engaging online environment. Together, they offer an engaging learning experience.
We designed the overall experience from reading your first lines to finishing your last book. Yoleo is made to become redundant once the student reads well on their own. That means the beginning, the end, and everything that happen in between is clearly defined.
We started by figuring out the best way to engage students early on. By rewarding their reading acitvity almost instantly, students felt good about themselves and their ability to read. This confidence grows as you proceed while rewards become less frequent and the level of challenge increases. They go from scoring quick points to finding reading rewarding in itself. In the end, they don't need any support or rewards to enjoy their next book and our job is done!
Using the special Yoleo reading app isn't the whole story though. What keeps the students coming back is a playful virtual environment where they can turn the points they earned into fun rewards.
For the visual style of Yoleo, we chose a creative paper-like look and feel. It's a bit rough around the edges, fun to look at and relates to this demographic. With a mix of arts and crafts materials and contemporary design, it's both modern and familiar.
Design concept
Meet your reading buddy Yoleo. He's here to support students on their path to becoming good readers. We designed Yoleo to be a fun and relatable character. He explains what to do and is there when you need him. By testing the character design early on, we knew Yoleo was likable and added value to the experience.
Character design
Students have their own virtual room with a bookshelf for their books. This room opens up a world of possibilities:
There are items to decorate your room in your own unique style.
There are ways to interact with other students as you share experiences and recommend book titles.
There's a game that unlocks levels as you read more books.
Everything about the Yoleo experience comes together in this room. It's your own special place where you can play, learn and enjoy your achievements.
Your own room
As mentioned, you earn points for reading pages, chapters and books. You can spend these points to buy fun elements for your virtual room. We knew we were onto something when we conducted our early user tests. The students picked the elemtents they liked and suggested ones that were missing. This enabled us to offer a great selection to start with. This is a big hit and the collection of elements keeps growing. There are seasonal elements and new elements being added regularly. Students can make suggestions and the most popular ones become part of the collection. This continuous co-creation is one of the keys to the success of Yoleo.
Fun elements
Develop.
Developing Yoleo required developing a mobile app and web based learning platform that need to work together seamlessly. With different phones and browsers, it's not easy to pull off. In the end, we managed to create one smooth experience for the students on different platforms with different functionalities.
There's also a back end that we created that enables the client to manage Yoleo. This is where books are added, activity is stored and scores are kept. Making this part of the design easy to use is just as important as serving the students. Both need to function well and provide a pleasant user experience.
Test.
Whenever you create a learning experience that is as innovative and unique as Yoleo, testing is extra important. At the start, you have great ambitions but no idea what's going to work well and what won't. There are a lot of moving parts and frequent testing is essential for making well informed design choices.
There's a lot to test for Yoleo. It's an app, a digital platform with multiple functionalities and games. That's why we tested in different stages of the project. Early on in the design process we started testing. By using paper prototypes we got insightful responses from students about the concept, visual style and character design. This is an important test that tells you if you are on the right track.
During development, we tested prototypes of the mobile app and the digital platform. As more functionalities and game elements were added, we tested them to ensure things got better instead of worse. For example, having a minigame readers can unlock requires separate testing. Testing a game is different from testing an interface design. Each step of the way requires testing, from paper prototype to a fully functioning digital design.
User testing
Launch.
Presenting a radically new concept like Yoleo deserves a special launch event!
During the National Education Expostion 2013 in the Netherlands, Yoleo was launched in a festive way. With a nomination for the audience award it's clear that Yoleo was well received. A life sized Yoleo mascot introduced visitors to his world that was brought to life in a real world environment. He welcomed well known Dutch children's book authors who share their books via Yoleo. An exciting start that marked the beginning of a successful journey.
Launch Party
I've done dozens of these topical online courses in my life, and this one was truly the best I've ever seen. The concept is amazing, and the delivery is top notch!
Wendy
Dedicon
It was a great collaboration. Shapers listened to our needs and challenged our thinking. Thanks to this, obstacles were overcome, and the simplicity of the game was maintained.
Wendy
Dedicon
Results.
Yoleo works!
The best way to find out if you are getting the results you aim for is by getting feedback from the students, parents and teachers. That's why we love the kind messages we get from them to share their enthusiam and to thank us.
Remarks like: "My daughter hated reading, now she's asking for a new book!" show that Yoleo works. It has truly helped their children or students boost their reading skills and to discover the joy of reading. That's incredibly rewarding for us and our client Dedicon.
It's clear that Yoleo works. Don't just take it from us, take it from the students!
Improvements
Yoleo has improving students reading skills for more than ten years! Over the years, we kept updating, refining and optimizing the learning experience and that has paid off. Students love to see new items they can collect for their rooms. Getting feedback from them, their parents, and their teachers has helped us to find improvements. That's improved usability, functionality and efficacy.
Today, the Royal Dutch Library, who represents all public libraries in the Netherlands, has made Yoleo accessible for all Dutch students. Since children's membership to libraries is free in the Netherlands, they can all access Yoleo for free.
Lessons learned
Yoleo is our longest running project. It's also our dearest project because of the serious problem it helps to tackle. Good reading skills are essential for anyone and the idea that we have been able to contribute to the joy and skill of reading on a large scale is very rewarding. This is why we do what we do as learning experience designers.
This hasn't been an easy project, with loads of technical and conceptual challenges along the way. Keeping a clear focus on the quality of the overall experience and an eye for detail has been key. Our dedication to serving learners has been the driving force throughout the project.
Keeping Yoleo relevant and running is an ongoing process. Thanks to the incredible collaboration with our client Dedicon, the Royal Dutch Library and the students, teachers, and parents we work with, the future is looking bright for Yoleo!
Research.
The two primary things we researched were the learning objectives needed to reach the learning outcome and the characteristics of the learner. During the design proces we worked closely together with researchers on how to perfect the impulse control in the games core mechanics.
Characteristics
"I know it's dangerous to use my Phone on my bike, and others get into accidents, but that won't happen to me." This summarizes the challenge this project faces. Teens generally underestimate risks and overestimate their own abilities. They can try stupid things because they feel invincible. Their desire is to have fun, and their risky behavior are two key characteristics for these learners.
Strategy
If they want to have fun and take risks, we could make a challenging game with a sense of humor.
Learning objectives
Looking at the characteristics of the learner, they understand there is risk in their current behavior; they just don't act to reduce it. It's also clear that lecturing them by offering more knowledge is not going to change much. They're not impressed if you tell them the chance of getting hurt is 40% higher when you use a Phone. Those are just numbers.
That's why we focus on strengthening the skill of impulse control. At the same time, we want them to be aware (insight) that it is simply hard to do several things at the same time.
Develop
For the development of the game we used Unity for iOS and Android. Unity enabled us to create prototypes relatively quickly, which is vital because game development requires a lot of testing. All visual elements were created using Adobe software and most animations were done in Unity.
We used a special plugin for Unity that enabled us to use vector graphics in the game instead of pixel based images. This drastically reduced the filesize of the game, which is beneficial for publishing on app stores.
Test.
As mentioned, game design involves frequent testing. From early prototypes to the final design, you need confirmation of the many design choices you make. We went to schools to test with students and used contextual observation. Seeing them play the game and capturing their honest reaction and emotional response produced significant insights.
One thing we learned is that for some students the game was too challenging while others had no problems reaching new levels. Unfortunately, we didn't have the time or money to improve that before the launch which is a constraint.
User testing
Meet Mr Smart, an evil CEO of a smartphone company. He is one of the most iconic characters in the game, so we we needed to nail the design.
Launch.
The launch of Wheelie Pop took place at a school where a Dutch YouTube star challenged a group of students for the high score. Having such a lively event and social media coverage was essential to get teens playing. Creating awareness is an important first step if you want to reach students around the country.
Launch Party
Meet Mr Smart, an evil CEO of a smartphone company. He is one of the most iconic characters in the game, so we we needed to nail the design.
Results.
50.000+ players!
There are various ways to determine whether this project was successful. The most important question is whether teens who played Wheelie Pop changed their behavior. The answer is yes, kind of. The effectiveness of the game was assessed by a research agency. They found out that of all players they tracked, 23% used their Phone less. That number is higher for players who spend more time playing Wheelie Pop.
Knowing that you are training a skill as you play, it makes sense that it takes time and effort to see improvement. They also saw an increased awareness of the risk of getting into an accident. That's good news.
Another measure of success is how many people play and enjoy the game. Since its release, Wheelie Pop has been downloaded more than 50.000 times and gets 3.5 out of 5 stars. Not bad for a 'serious game' in The Netherlands. Overall, a success!
Improvements
After the launch we added features to the game to make it easier for players who struggled, without taking away the challenge for more experienced players. We also created more levels as we know that playing longer results in better impulse control. We wanted to attracht more players and to keep them playing and training.
Lessonds learned
Often, launching your design is an afterthought. However, this launch was vital to the success of the project. Something to keep in mind.
Working with scientists has been of incredible value for this project, both for the design of the game and to measure the results. We were able to use our design skills more effectively thanks to their work.
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Question.
How can we prevent teens from using their phones while cycling?
Learning Outcome
"I know its's a bad idea to use my phone while cycling. I'll try to keep my phone in my pocket and ignore alerts and messages. It's not easy, but I'm determined to spend less time using my phone on my bike."
The science of impulse control
How do you train impulse control? That's what a group of Dutch scientists from Radboud University wanted to research. The answer: stop signal treatment (SST).
The concept of SST is to train reacting to the right, and ignoring the wrong impulses. This is trained by rapidly showing images where you have to choose quickly if you are going to react or not. By repeating this process, you become better at ignoring wrong impulses while acting on right impulses. That's perfect for achieving our learning outcome!