Trall
Rediscovering the joy of singing together.Together with OsloMet’s department of Early Childhood Education, we’ve designed and built Trall — a digital singing experience filled with beautifully re-recorded songs by some of Norway’s most prominent artists.
What we did
- Product strategy and design
- Brand strategy, identity and narrative
- Data-driven animated illustrations
- Content style guide and UX copy
- Front and back end development
Rejuvenating Norway’s musical heritage
Studies show that we feel increasingly less comfortable singing, especially in front of others. If this trend continues, and educators and children continue to spend less time together singing in class rooms, traditional children’s songs might slowly diminish from Norway’s collective memory.
By giving access to a digital treasure chest of over 150 songs, Trall aims to rejuvenate this musical heritage. In close collaboration with the Trall team, we designed and built the recently launched beta version of the app; an audiovisual music player that invites children and educators to rediscover the joy of singing together.
Both educators and children can create their own lists, add images and names to new and old songs, find a “song of the week”, collect favourites and find curated lists based on activities and moods.
Both educators and children can create their own lists, add images and names to new and old songs, find a “song of the week”, collect favourites and find curated lists based on activities and moods.
In the music player, the lyrics and visualisations are developed to be accessible and not bind children to the screen, with the option of finding more information about the music – the history, what instruments are used and which language the lyrics are in.
In the music player, the lyrics and visualisations are developed to be accessible and not bind children to the screen, with the option of finding more information about the music – the history, what instruments are used and which language the lyrics are in.
The library offers a wide selection of beautifully recorded songs in a range of languages such as Kveni, Saami, Arabic and Norwegian dialects. Quick filters and a search field allow for easy discovery.
The library offers a wide selection of beautifully recorded songs in a range of languages such as Kveni, Saami, Arabic and Norwegian dialects. Quick filters and a search field allow for easy discovery.
Building an engaging digital platform based on rigorous testing
Building a digital product for children of various age groups is a vastly different challenge than doing so for adults. Young children have a shorter attention span and the list of ethical considerations around privacy, accessibility and health is considerably longer.
Based on extensive research and testing, we built the Trall app on multiple layers of possible engagement: from listening to music, singing along, and experiencing the visuals, to creating playlists, tuning the volume and discovering background information. We worked towards an accessible experience for everyone involved — whether you use the app in a classroom, or at home.
Both the student and the educator should be able to safely interact with the app, and intuitively discover its most basic features.
Musical data as the basis for visual shapes and transitions
Singing together creates a joint focus: it helps children shift from one activity to the next. Getting dressed to go to school, entering the classroom after recess, wrapping up a school day: these moments all entail shifts in energy levels, a different state of mind. Singing can help make these transitions feel more organic for children. When developing the identity of Trall, we aimed to give form to those transitions.
The animated illustrations you see in the background of the music player are automatically generated every time you interact with the app, following shifts in music and drawn from transitions in nature. We extracted data from the melodies, themes and rhythms of songs: the size of shapes is affected by dynamics, the colours change with different sections of the song, and whenever you see a multiplication or blooming burst of shapes, you’ll hear the tempo of the song move along.
We drew inspiration from flora and fauna to design Trall’s animated shapes. [Video from Adrian Smith, 2022]
To generate these shapes we studied plants and fungi, their textures and movements. We looked at the petals and pistil of flowers, zoomed in on the texture of moss, and observed the body of a beetle seen from above.
Tech Stacks
- Python, FastAPI, Psql (backend)
- React, React Admin (admin)
- Kotlin, Android Jetpack components, Ktor, Koin, SQLDelight, Coil (Android)
- Swift, UIKit (iOS)
Collaborators
- Maewenn Bourcelot (photography)