Art Direction
Reading Coach avatars
The project aimed to enhance the Reading Coach experience by offering learners a choice of avatars to personalize their learning journey. This initiative was part of a broader effort to increase engagement and motivation among users of Reading Coach and Math Coach.
The collaboration with Tendril, the studio behind Microsoft's emoji and other illustration/animation work, resulted in the creation of multiple avatars based on the existing Microsoft emoji set. The team worked on narrowing these down to a final six, which were then animated to display coaching reactions
Built from Emojis
The idea behind building reading coach avatars from the Microsoft Emoji system was to create engaging, relatable, and visually appealing characters that could help make the learning experience more enjoyable for students. The main reasons why this approach was chosen:
Familiarity: Emojis are widely recognized and used in everyday communication, making them familiar and approachable for students of all ages.
Consistency: Leveraging the existing Microsoft Emoji system ensures a consistent design language across different platforms and applications.
Designed with expression
Each avatar is designed with multiple facial expressions, this was done for multiple reasons:
Emotional Engagement: Characters with varied facial expressions can convey emotions effectively, helping to create a more engaging and relatable learning experience. This emotional connection can motivate students to stay focused and interested in the content.
Improved Comprehension: Visual cues, such as facial expressions, can aid in comprehension by providing additional context to the material being taught. This can be particularly beneficial for younger learners or those with learning difficulties.
Positive Reinforcement: Characters that show positive expressions, like smiles or excitement, can provide encouragement and positive reinforcement to students, boosting their confidence and willingness to participate.
The final set
