PBS KIDS GO!

PBS KIDS Go! was an educational television brand created by PBS for programs aimed at early elementary-age children, in contrast to the younger preschool target demographic of PBS KIDS. The Go! brand was used on air and online from 2004 to 2013. As online streaming began to increase in popularity, PBS KIDS launched the PBS KIDS GO! video player on its website on September 8, 2008. This federally-funded, innovative video streaming platform featured videos from all of PBS KIDS GO! shows, which rotated every week and offered an in-video interactive gaming feature for a few select shows. I joined the PBS KIDS GO! brand and built out the new online video section of the GO! website.

The GO! site was built out in Flash 2.0 and 3.0 ActionScript, which provided, at the time, a rich canvas for multimedia interactivity. While working on GO! I designed the video player, the secret games vault, and the tower of games we internally called “Time Square,” redesigned the games page, and updated the homepage.

I loved the hidden and not-so-hidden opportunity to present delight and wonder to the users. As my first assignment at PBS KIDS, it is near and dear to my heart. Shouts out to my coworker Renzo Olguin, who is a wizard at Actionscripting and one of the brightest minds at PBS KIDS.