Putting advanced physics at school leavers' fingertips
CLIENT: University of Cambridge Physics Department
INDUSTRY: EDUCATION
FORMAT: WEBSITe, ONLINE LEARNING PLATFORM
MY ROLE: Naming, Tagline, Site and Content structure, USER EXPERIENCE
The Isaac Physics question board
A dedicated team of academics within the University of Cambridge's Physics Department were on a mission to bridge the (substantial) gap between the way physics is taught in schools and colleges and the way students studying physics at university are expected to work.
In particular, they wanted to help students practice using their knowledge to tackle complex physics problems on their own. The team had already collected hundreds of physics questions aimed at sixth formers; now they needed a way to make their content accessible and engaging.
Name and branding
We created a memorable name and an eye-catching, modern branding for the project. The name and logo offered a breath of fresh air as well as a nod to Isaac Newton, one of the physics (and Cambridge) greats.
The tagline not only explains the site's focus on independent problem solving, it also acts as a call to action for a aspiring young physicists to roll their up sleeves and get stuck in.
‘Gamification’ and user experience
To help students navigate all the different subjects, topics and levels of difficulty, we created a custom 'question builder' which they could use to set their level and select the mix of topics they wanted to practice. This would generate an interactive 'board' of randomly selected new questions for students to complete. The brightly coloured hexagonal question tiles give the site a fun yet challenging game-show feel.
With their own Isaac Physics accounts, students can log their progress on the site, keep track of their score and log in to complete a problem whenever they have some downtime. The site is fully responsive so it can be used just as easily on phone and tablets.
