The problem our group sought to solve was encouraging high school and college students to read and understand Shakespeare outside of class. Very often Shakespeare is considered boring, intimidating and hard to understand, and our team wanted to create a fun alternative to learning Shakespeare’s works that would make it both enjoyable and educational.

We used multiple approaches when conducting research for this problem. We surveyed 60+ high school students about their learning habits and overall attitude towards Shakespeare. We also conducted competitor analyses with other Shakespeare apps on the market to compare what methods they used to enhance comprehension. We researched statistics pertinent to Shakespeare and classroom learning, and studied the works of Shakespeare.

The results of our findings were critical. We found that the words our surveyed students associate the most with Shakespeare are “confusing,” “boring” and “difficult”. Our students’ favorite aspects of Shakespeare are the humor, time period, and the text’s relation to present day, and 89% of students do not read Shakespeare outside of class. We also found that watching videos, acting out scenes and getting modern day translations for the text are the three best ways to help students understand Shakespeare.

Overall, our app tackles every aspect of Shakespeare so it can help students learn and comprehend the text in many different ways, based on how they learn best. It also brings in a game element that encourages students to connect through the app, challenge each other, and earn points to buy in-game accessories.