Let’s Call Dora
(2023)While working at Noggin, my role as an Interactive Designer was to create wireframes that portrayed the key interactions taking place for our educational games. The wireframes acted as a visualized reference point for our team (animators, designers, compositors and programmers) to utilize during the game’s production. For this project, the main challenge involved far less HUD elements appearing that would typically be swiped, tapped on or physically interacted with. Instead, the core interaction revolved around speaking directly to Dora in order to progress the conversation taking place over a video call, along with completing a few minigames. The goal aimed to teach and reinforce new words in Spanish to children ages 3 through 5, such as saying the word ‘¡Salta!’ (Jump!) in order to travel across a pond as a frog while also catching flies.
After completing the wireframes, I designed the UI assets that would appear during the call and the minigames, including the initial contacts page with pressable contacts/buttons, the container for the player’s avatar on call, the speaking + listening icons, the fly catching counter, and the main purple border that would glow green for when Dora was speaking to the player.
Video Demonstration
Link to Wireframes (Slides)
On Call - New Minigame
For each playthrough, children get to play a different minigame (3 total) that teaches a new word in Spanish
Early Sketches
Some initial pen and paper drawings prior to creating wireframes in Photoshop
Video Calling Dora via Contacts
Starts with a contacts list of Nick Jr. characters and the phone rings until Dora picks up and starts the video call
Gatos (Cats) Minigame
Whenever a cat appears in a window, kids are encouraged to say the word “Gato”
¡Salta! (Jump!) Minigame
In order to jump and catch flies, kids are encouraged to say the word “¡Salta!”
Azul (Blue) Minigame
To help turn miscellaneous objects blue, kids are encouraged to say the word “Azul”
