poptropica
Poptropica, developed by the Family Education Network, the makers of Funbrain, is the popular virtual world for kids 6 to 12. The site is a world of adventurous islands that lets kids collect objects, read digital books and comics, watch movies and compete in head-to-head competition. Poptropica chose Sudden to help them expand this world in new and unique ways to attract, engage and retain a larger audience.
highlights
- Helped Poptropica create a long-term content and functionality roadmap
- Refreshed design and navigation to better accommodate the growth of new content across the site
- Worked with Poptropica’s legacy technology to expand functionality across the site
The popularity of Poptropica is based on the creative and amazing island adventures that are the center of the user experience. And though new islands are published at a very regular basis, there were two major challenges for a regular Poptropica visitor. One challenge was how to keep Poptropicans better
engaged between the launch of new islands. And two, with a slate of new content being published, how could Poptropica better inform visitors of its new features. The solutions involved a combination of strategy, user interface design and technology. First Sudden, working together with Poptropica came up with a content strategy that best fit their existing mission of providing meaningful children’s entertainment. Having arrived at new features like comics, mini-games and behind the scenes info, then the site needed a way to present it all through better information architecture, navigation and display. And finally, to accommodate all these new features, the technology needed to be reworked to better track and display these activities.