Industry
Education
Company
Findel
What Was Delivered
iOS/Android
The Client
Findel is the number one supplier for schools across the UK, providing educational resources across many sectors. One of their products is the E.a.R.L: a coding robot designed to teach primary school children the basics of programming and provide an introduction to the world of coding and computer science.
The Problem
The E.a.R.L robot is placed on a mat, and children can input commands in order to get the robot from one place to another. Some of the mats tell stories: for example, a treasure island or a town for E.a.R.L to navigate.
What Findel wanted was an app that would use augmented reality in order to overlay 3d images over the mats. Children could then run the app on a tablet or iPad, point the camera at the mat and watch as E.a.R.L’s world comes to life!
The Solution
We produced native mobile apps for both Android and iOS, which use Unity for handling augmented reality.
The apps provide the ability to select from multiple mats, as well as giving users challenges to complete for their given mat.
As the app is used by primary school children, careful consideration had to be made around the ease of use. Thorough testing around accessibility and usability was conducted by both our team and in schools to ensure the best possible end-user experience.
Working with multiple systems - Android, iOS, and Unity for AR - proved to be a challenge, but through collaboration, our team seamlessly integrated Unity code within our native Android and iOS apps.
The Outcome
We received great feedback upon launch, and Findel were quick to make the apps available for UK schools to use alongside the AR mats. Classrooms across the country have started to integrate E.a.R.L and the apps into their ICT lessons, with teachers praising the ease of use and the benefits to their classes.
Explore more of our success stories here.
