‘Where do words come from?’
Planet Word
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Content & Strategy: Madeleine Osborn
Design Lead: Andy Moliski
Motion: Devon Burgoyne
Design Support: Joey Morrin
Planet Word, a language museum in Washington DC, seeks to inspire and renew a love of words, language, and reading in people of all ages. Through unique, immersive learning experiences, they provide a space to explore words and language that is grounded in a solid understanding of language arts and science.
‘Where do words come from?’ is an educational web experience that explores the origins of words. Users browse an interactive database of words to discover the origins of English through narrative video pieces and minigames. The experience is driven by exploration and curiosity, and rewards users with a creative shareable conclusion.
Project type: One Month Ideation Sprint
An introduction to word origins
A “word slot machine” spins potential entry-point words until the user clicks to land on a specific word.
A word is randomly selected.
After being paired with a word, each user is shown a brief onboarding introduction to the experience.
A user plays a minigame specific to french word origins.
After completing the minigame, the user is rewarded with the original word they chose, which enters their “Word Collection.”
Word groupings are revealed in a cloud as users play minigames. Motion and connectivity keeps the interface lively and inviting.
A user is able to scroll out to reveal a ‘10,000 ft’ view of the word cloud.
After a user has played a few minigames and collected a handful of words, they are ready to write a poem.
Users can share their poem as well as view others.
Every component of the experience will be designed to be accessed across all device types and screen sizes.