Now Press Play App
Now Press Play is an immersive audio app connecting primary school children via wireless headphones to their learning through sound, storytelling and movement.
An immersive audio app connecting primary school children via wireless headphones to their learning through sound, storytelling and movement.
What is Now Press Play?
Now Press Play (also styled now>press>play) is an application that plays curated audio experiences to a class of children via wireless headsets. Aimed at EYFS, KS1 and KS2, the experiences are designed to make learning about a particular subject fun, engaging and immersive. These experiences can range from the story of Christmas to the volcanic eruption at Pompeii, adventures in space or digging for Dinosaur fossils. Each is accompanied by a number of supporting materials such as quizzes, discussion topics, storyboards and more.
How did we do it?
Now Press Play has already developed a series of apps for Android that were designed to play back an experience. Still, these were separate offline apps, each specifically targeting an age range and subject. Managing and updating these individual apps had become difficult for both the client and the schools. Adding content was a time-consuming process, and the more content that was added, the more difficult it was becoming to manage the growing number of apps.
What was needed was an app that could serve all age ranges and subjects in one place, be updated with fresh content, and provide additional supporting resources.
We took Now Press Play’s original concept and, employing a series of co-design workshop sessions with the client, redesigned the app from scratch, factoring in their original needs, additional requirements, and future goals.
This was initially prototyped in Figma, which allowed us to test whether the user experience was intuitive and could work across mobile and tablet devices. It was then refined before we started developing it.
Once everyone was happy with the prototype, we built a pair of all-in-one native applications for iOS and Android, that can be easily updated via a backend WordPress CMS with new subjects and supporting resources.
Working with Reason Digital to develop our app and new features is always enjoyable, as they think about our business in the round, including our operational considerations, customer experience - as well as our budget and what is within our means. Above all, I really value their speed to respond to app issues under our Assurance contract: it is always reassuring to know that someone will respond usually within minutes
The result:
Since going live in 2019, the app has had a series of updates, features and improvements added. There are currently over 80 experiences, and the apps are used by over 600 schools to enrich the learning of over 170,000 pupils and continue to grow.
Awards
- Winner Best Digital Device BETT Award 2019
- Winner Best Resource Award by Educational Resource Awards in 2020
This app was a fun challenge that required some difficult audio manipulation under the hood, but it’s resulted in a really great experience for the children that use it. The app is always evolving, so there’s always something new to add that makes the experience even better. The fact that it’s won some awards too makes me feel proud.