In an age where education has gone digital and playtime has become screen time, the #MonsterBreak #App brings a breath of fresh air to home-bound children in Germany. As schools shut down due to COVID-19, over 13 million children found themselves locked away from their regular routines and playmates.
Our challenge: How do we restore a semblance of normalcy to these children? How do we bring back playtime in a fun, interactive, and collaborative way?
Our solution – the MonsterBreak App. Designed for children aged 2-13 years, this digital companion aims to bridge the gap between isolation and collaboration. Teachers and students alike can use the app to recreate an interactive classroom environment, ensuring that the spirit of playtime is never lost.
Our research was comprehensive and cross-cultural, with four interviewees from Germany, Sweden, and Spain. Their insights proved invaluable, guiding us through the brainstorming process and aiding in the development of the MonsterBreak prototype's functionalities.
Our creativity wasn't just limited to brainstorming. As we journeyed from idea to implementation, we sketched out the user experience in scribbles, visualizing the path our little users would embark upon. These scribbles, our humble beginnings, can be found in the next slides.
On the technical front, we built the prototype with the might of React Native, React Native Web & React Navigation for the frontend. Style Components and Expo & Expo Web added the aesthetics, while AWS Cognito & AWS Data Store supported the backend. Together, they created a robust app ready for the Appstore (iOS), Playstore (Android), and the web.
Once the user-generated content is uploaded, it syncs with the cloud and with all user cell phones. In this way, we've ensured a seamless connection between our MonsterBreak friends, creating a virtual playground where children can find joy, inspiration, and each other. Now, the app is more than a tool – it's a haven for children to explore, learn, and grow, together.
