World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a noble attempt to bring the amazing endangered animals across the globe, on your iPhone. Very beautifully and interactively, it weaves a complete story around them. Most apps today are oriented to solving a daily problem, but THIS is different; and I simply love this app - the complete experience on it is about discovery.
Information about 16 endangered species such as their current population, habitat, weight etc is presented very elegantly and thoughtfully. The app interface is clean, light and full of interactive elements. It is indeed a playful experience. All its pages have strong typography and stunning images to narrate the story of these endangered species.
Important takeaway from the app experience -
Most of the screens are at a swipe. This is a great takeaway for designers because this makes the use of app on mobile very handy. According to a study, 49% of the users use a single thumb to go through the app. 36% use 2 fingers and 15% of the users use both the thumbs.
Most of the interaction of the app is limited to the easy and OK sections.
(ease of use while using mobile with single thumb)
Before we get deeper into the app’s usability, you would definitely want to experience the prototype by yourself. So here is the app prototype of the WWF app -
I am sure you had a great experience diving into the prototype. Now we are good to dive deeper into its usabilty.
#On-boarding
There are various patterns that designers have been using for on-boarding (check them). The WWF app uses a gif for on-boarding. It is beautiful and fun to watch. The best thing is they also an option of “SKIP”, which is very important while on-boarding. It gives an option for users to escape the process if they have already seen it.
(GIF on-boarding the users)
And a very interesting observation about the on-boarding is - For most apps people SKIP the on-boarding process if there is an option, but for the WWF app, very very few people skipped the on-boarding while the GIF was playing. This is a pretty amazing fact I came across when I saw the heat map of the prototype.
(Start vs Skip on the on-boarding screen)
#Sections allocated to animals
There is a separate section for each endangered species. Once you select a particular animal, the complete story about them unfurls. For this prototype I have selected - The giant pandas - CHARISMA. For any given animal that you select, you can swipe down or right to move through a grid of short experiences relating to the spices. You could race a jaguar, try to out jump a snow leopard or see through the eyes of tiger.
(Gif of sections allocated to animals)
#Across the globe
Animal facts across the globe section shows a beautiful 3D interactive globe that gives you a look at 60 different endangered species around the world that WWF are trying to protect.
(GIF of 3D globe rotating)
There is a very interesting experiment I setup at this stage. The drop down arrow on the screen takes you down to different such facts. But, I used the same navigation on the arrow and on the screen for swiping. The intention was to verify if swiping the screen is intuitive enough. As as per my thought process, people have clicked more number of times on the down arrow rather than swiping the screen.
Probably WWF could add right and left headed arrows to make the flow more intuitive.
(Down headed arrow is more intuitive than the swipe)
#Mini facts about animals
The app manages to give bursts of mini, cool and unusual animal facts in the app. These little-known facts shared throughout the app make it very informative. It’s a common notion that text turns off users. But not when it is used wisely. This app gives information in minimal words.
It is seen from the heat map analysis that users are actually reading each of these mini animal facts even when they have an option to skip it.
(mini facts about animals has got a good interaction)
#Click a pic with the origami
This superb app from WWF, offers a new way to interact with those most awesome creatures - Take pics with their origami. Place it on your hand or your laptop, it’s really cute! You could post these photos across your social profiles to spread awareness about the endangered species.
(image credits)
Conclusion :
Very young kids will surely need their parents or siblings by their side, but otherwise the app is very user friendly and educative. The user on this app feels engaged. It’s entertaining yet very informative. This is the kind of app that in fun and educative for users of all ages. And this is not something that is very easy to achieve for an app. Kudos to the team at WWF! We surely need more such innovative apps.
Grab more information about the app here.
Would love to here your experience on the app as well. Do leave a comment below about it.