WWF's augmented education

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is an organization on a mission to stop the degradation of the planet's natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. In order to make this happen, they need to educate and influence people to make sustainable choices and decisions.

Their latest initiative to achieve this is with the Free-Flowing Rivers app, which is an interactive storytelling experience that educates how wildlife, people and landscapes depend on rivers in relation to the construction of dams and sustainable energy options.

But to make the education active and not passive, WWF leverages augmented reality (AR) to create a novel and engaging experience.

Why this is really good UX:

• WWF's goal is to make a change for the better. And to make a change you need to educate, entertain and engage. This is exactly what AR does by offering a seamless, low-effort yet rich user experience.
• The tooltips enhance the user experience by explaining how to use the unfamiliar environment. They naturally feel a part of the process and help the user proceed without causing a distraction.
• The pattern of the flow is to educate, engage and repeat to keep motivation and momentum going. Each piece of information is no longer than 50 words to ensure the key message gets across without losing the user's attention. This is then followed by an interactive activity to keep the user stimulated.
• The last part of the journey is to “Raft the River,” which is a fun and engaging game that finishes the user on a high.  This capitalizes on the peak-end rule where a user weights their judgement on an experience to the peak moment and its end. Because of this, users are much more likely to recommend the app and look back on it positively.