Sklad Uma × SIBUR
“Engineers of the Wild”
Sklad Uma won a SIBUR competition to create an educational project supporting Russia’s rare animal species, and came to me to build the project’s digital part.
What I had to start from was texts and photographs. Everything else — the structure of the portal, the interaction logic, the visual system and the path a child takes through the site — had to be built from scratch.
Context
The project itself was built around a physical construction kit: a child assembles a model of a rare animal and, through play, learns about the species, its habitat and the threats it faces.
But simply putting encyclopaedia entries next to the kit was not enough. The digital part had to continue the mechanics of the product itself: hold a child’s attention, give knowledge in small portions, and turn learning about the subject into doing something.
Today the project brings together construction kits, learning materials, tasks, quizzes and other interactive mechanics.
Turn educational content into an interactive experience for children
Create not an information site about endangered animals, but a standalone educational portal that takes a child from curiosity to engagement: meet the animal, learn why it needs protection, test what you know, get a personal result and share it.
Approach
Do not move text onto a screen — turn it into a scenario
The source material had to be laid out not like an ordinary corporate site, but along the logic of how a child interacts.
So I built the portal as a sequence of small discoveries and actions: meeting the animals, facts and traits, checking what you know, playful quizzes, instructions, and mechanics that carry the experience beyond the screen.
Gamification as a way to hold attention, not as decoration
Interactivity here was not meant to exist for the effect. Every mechanic served a learning purpose.
A child can test what they know in quizzes, find out which endangered animal they are, get a result and share it. The site also gathers instructions for the kits and tasks about building a habitat for an animal.
That way the learning material stops feeling like an article you have to read and becomes part of the game.
Connect the physical and the digital product
The portal was conceived not apart from the kits but as their continuation. The physical model draws a child in through doing; the site widens that experience, helping them learn more about the species, its environment and how it can be protected.
As a result the two halves of the project work as one educational system.
What I did
Given the team’s source texts and photographs, I was responsible for the whole digital product:
The key part of the work was not styling a ready-made structure, but turning the source content into a digital experience children find clear and interesting.
Outcome
Instead of an ordinary information site, what came out is a full digital half of “Engineers of the Wild” — one that continues the experience of the physical kit and helps tell children about protecting rare species through play, exploration and action.
The project grew beyond the web as well: “Engineers of the Wild” was presented at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
According to SIBUR’s “Formula for Good Deeds” programme, the project also ran in five cities: more than seven events were held, 150 kits were produced and around 160 children took part.
Other cases
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