This interactive experience brings you closer to the stories of elephants, whales, rhinos and other fascinating species. Discover their lives and the work of WWF in a way you’ve never seen before.

Source: Android description / Video: World Wildlife Fund

Useful information

Download: Android 4.0 (38MB+complements) / iOS  9.3 (1.27GB)

Price: Android  (in-app purchases. 1,46 € – 36,69 € by element) / iOS free

Language: Spanish / Chinese / French / English (for Android devices, only English)

Runs offline: partially

Last update: Android 10/08/2015 (v. 1.1.0) – iOS 12/10/2016 (v. 2.1.5)

Website of the developer: WWF / AKQA

Notes: article updated on 14/11/2016

Description

WWF Together is an application of the well-known environmental NGO that, through interactive stories, offers an immersion into the main features of some of the most endangered and charismatic animals on the planet: giant panda, turtle, elephant, tiger, bison, bear polar, whale, snow leopard, rhino, gorilla, shark, jaguar, monarch butterfly, orangutan, dolphin and penguin.

The application has two main options:

  • Symbol in the shape of origami that allows the access to the different animals included. The home screen of each species, plus an image, it shows a characteristic that defines to the animal (for example, the elephant is linked to intelligence). The information available for each animal is presented in form of a matrix through which you navigates by moving the screen from left to right or top to bottom and vice versa. The common sections of the different species are related with basic data, where the population in natural habitats, weight, length and a map with their distribution are included. There is also a section with photographs that have an information icon to access to other facts; videos (an internet connection is required), where an expert narrates his experience with the species (in English without subtitles); major threats; and other data, some of which require your direct interaction to be discovered. With this information, you can obtain an overview of the species and its situation. In the bottom right you will see a plus sign on a blue background that lets you take a selfie or a photograph of the origami corresponding to the selected animal (in the attached image, you can see the example of the orangutan) to share later in your social networks.
  • 3 symbols of sum which, besides allowing you to interact with the origamis, (from the website you can download the instructions to create yourself these figures), shows you the different options to share and support the work of WWF.

The Android version also features a news section and a map where the distribution of many other species is shown.

WWF Together historias interactivas interactive stories

More information

http://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/the-world-s-most-amazing-animals-are-now-on-your-iphone

http://www.akqa.com/work/wwf/together/

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671780/the-wwfs-brilliant-new-app-lets-you-safely-swipe-at-tigers-rhinos-and-more/5

Images: WWF has not granted permission to this web to include screenshots of the application

Rating
4

Analysis

The pressure which largely are exercising the human activities on habitats are putting at serious risk to the most iconic animals on the planet, some of which, such as the orangutan, keep a high affinity with humans (various studies say that we share 97% of the genome). Poaching, destruction of natural habitats and climate change are some of the main threats which these species are facing. However, if mechanisms to attract the attention of society and achieve convey the urgency of the situation are not implemented, the necessary participation and involvement to tackle these problems will not be achieved.

Applications such as the designed by WWF help to convey this information through a careful design that integrates aspects with which the user must interact (it must be recognized that sometimes it’s a bit tricky to know what to do). However, elements such as audio files that recreate the most characteristic sounds of the animals are missing in the application. The sounds, together with moving images, can achieve a greater capacity of immersion. Similarly, it’s discriminatory the fact that Android users need to pay to unlock all animals (free of charge, the application only includes 8 animals) while iOS users have access to all the species. It would also be necessary to enable other languages for the version of Android, as well as add captions to the videos.

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Técnico de medio ambiente, community manager y content curator especializada en temas de medioambiente - Environmental technician, community manager and content curator specialised in environmental issues