Ranger Rick Jr. Appventures

iOS App Series

Skills: Leadership, UI Design, Interaction Design, Illustration

Project Summary

Ranger Rick Jr. Appventures is a series of 2 apps created in collaboration with National Wildlife Federation. Our objective was to translate an educational magazine into a reskinnable interactive experience. Additionally, we were tasked with updating the character design for Ranger Rick Jr. and Sammy Skunk and producing a 30 second promotional spot for the app.

More Information

My Role

Project Lead

As project lead my duties included collaborating with our creative directors to develop the visual style for the app, managing client communication and approvals, and designing the interactions and games in collaboration with the team.

Creative Direction

Supervise and direct art, design, animation, sound design, acting, and music
Lead team brainstorming, idea development, and design iteration
Create and maintain storyboards and presentations
Pitch ideas to client
Delegate creative ownership when appropriate
Production work
- Concept Art
- Asset illustration
- UI menu, icon, and font design
- Sound effect, dialog, and music editing
- Frame animation
- Copywriting and editing
- Wireframes and screenflows

Management

Facilitate internal and client approvals
Record, communicate, and track notes from the client to the team
Assign, track, and test bugs
Determine criteria for alpha, beta, and release builds
Coordinate with Producer, Lead Artist, Lead Engineer, and Lead Animator to assign and maintain tasks
Develop an asset production workflow for artists to efficiently prepare assets for handoff to engineers

*Explore Activity, Lion Edition*

Character Designer: Christina Faulkner. Environment Artist: LaShea Brittain. Interactive Designers: Russell Smith, John Cannon, LaShea Brittain. UI Designer: LaShea Brittain.

*Main Menu, Bears Edition*

Character Designer: Kim Kuchenbecker. Environment Artists: LaShea Brittain, Kim Kuchenbecker. UI Designer: LaShea Brittain.

Design Process Sample: Explore Section

Our biggest interactive design challenge was the Explore experience. The client wanted us to translate a photo essay that is regularly featured in the Ranger Rick Jr. magazine into a unique, educational, and fun interactive experience.

Idea development and Pitching

The image above illustrates a broad overview of the interactive concept that I pitched to our client.

Prototyping

To help the client visualize the idea, we created videos demonstrating how the interactions would work and built a prototype with placeholder assets.

Visual Development: Styleframe

*Explore Concept Art*

Environment Artist and UI Designer: LaShea Brittain. Character Designer: Christina Faulkner.

In tandem with prototyping, we iterated on style. I illustrated this styleframe.

Production

I worked closely with the Lead Engineer to produce assets that would work with our development strategy. The below images served as living reference for our team and for the client.