Zooplay
Zooplay is the San Diego Zoo's first ever voice skill for children between the ages of 4-9.
The experience is packed with stories of zoo animals and games to instill an education about wildlife conservation while having tremendous fun along the way.
Zooplay's purpose is to integrate San Diego Zoo's mission of conservation within kids so that they can grow to care about conservation.
Info
Duration: 2 months, 2019
Software: Voice flow, Sketch, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Miro
Key Roles: Voice skill designing, Copywriting, Visual Design, Branding & Marketing, Prototyping
Process
Secondary Research
Concept pitching
Copywriting and experience mapping
Design voice experience & marketing visuals
Present to creative team
Transforming challenges into goals
The use of voice-control technology has become mainstream and is growing worldwide.
However, young children are unlikely to have interacted with a voice assistant.
To design Zooplay, we outlined three challenges to address the main goal:
How might we teach kids how to use Zooplay whilst learning about conservation at the zoo?
Engage
Children have a hard time enunciating, are easily distracted, or lose interest.
Thus, the conversation had to account for such responses.
For example, if a child were asked to say their favorite animal and said, “dalphwin,” Zooplay needs to be able to understand that as “dolphin.”
Tap into their intuition
Zooplay needs to mimic a real life conversation that children are used to.
By keeping questions short and speaking to them in a friendly tone,
Zooplay’s onboarding process equips kids with simple commands to make them feel comfortable using Zooplay.
Uplift
The San Diego Zoo wants children to walk away with a new love for wildlife.
To instill that connection, the main narrator is modeled after Zookeeper Rick, who bridges the gap between humans and animals. He narrates true stories of the zoo animals and shares how they can be involved with conservation.
Conversation flow,"Talk to Zooplay!"
Zooplay is a 4 part experience that begins with an introduction, storytelling component, playing a game related to the story, and repeating the process until they meet all the animals and achieve the honorary zookeeper badge.
"Congrats!" Honorary Zookeeper Email
Zooplay congratulations kids who completes the entire experience by sending their guardian an email containing an honorary zookeeper badge- just like Zookeeper Rick. This form of marketing promotes email engagement and brings families back to the zoo.
Zookeeper badge
Aligning with San Diego Zoo Kids' brand guidelines
When it came to branding Zooplay, it needed to resonate with San Diego Zoo Kids’ branding of contrasting colors and simple patterns.
Marketing Zooplay at the San Diego Zoo
Zooplay is discoverable at the San Diego Zoo, social media platforms, billboards, and bus stops. The posters portray the back and forth conversation of sharing personal stories of animals at the zoo.
Connecting the touch points
To recap, the visual marketing, voice skill, email engagement are multiple touch points to guide children and guardians on how Zooplay brings the zoo to one's home and back.
So, did Zooplay fulfill its goals?
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Children are passionate about conservation and grow a relationship with the San Diego Zoo animals.
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Parents see how the San Diego Zoo provides fun learning experiences to their child's growth.
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The San Diego Zoo rises in sales and becomes the leading source for wildlife conservation.
