Meet Louise Flannery

Q: Louise, congratulations on your Becton Fellowship at GBH! What do you do there?

Thank you! I’m excited and honored to have the chance to participate in the Becton Fellowship! I’m a Senior Digital Producer in GBH’s Children’s Media department. I work with a team that creates fun, educational interactive games, apps, and websites for children, parents, and educators. 

In my 10 years at GBH I’ve worked on games about ecosystems around the world, wind power and the engineering design process, and creative expression through music, dance, story-telling and visual arts. I’ve also worked on apps for preschool classrooms to explore early math and science, apps with activities for families to explore together, and activity guides for teachers and caregivers. There’s always exciting new stuff to work on!

Q: Did you start out wanting to develop digital content to enhance kids’ learning? 

This is a good question, because the answer is: No! 

In the first part of my career, I was interested in how to support learning with physical materials. As a preschool teacher, I loved designing hands-on activities that helped children learn in playful and exploratory ways. I wanted to find projects that prioritized their ideas and interests that also incorporated conversations with peers and support from teachers to enhance the learning and engagement. 

In grad school I was introduced to interactive technologies and media that can provide many of the aspects of learning experiences that were important to me. I worked on activities for kindergarteners to learn robotics and programming with physical blocks and was part of the research team that co-designed the ScratchJr programming tool. Through these projects, I became very excited about interactive media as a format for delightful, kid-centered, and fun learning and expression. 

Digital devices are a pervasive addition to all our lives including children’s. I love that our work at GBH ensures that families can find great content on those platforms, content and games that teach important topics and also skills like solving problems, persevering, exerting agency, and exploring self-expression.

Q: Can you walk us through the creative process of developing games? 

Pinkalicious & Peterrific is a fun example of how our games are made. Our goal for this series’ games is to give children an imagination-sparking scenario and a set of interactive experiences and creative tools that allow them to make their own works of art. This lets them practice creative arts skills and processes, while having fun. Because of the creative arts curriculum focus, the games are more about the player creating something compelling of their own than about winning or being “correct”. This really resonates with kids!

This work is highly collaborative. The core digital production team consists of producers who organize the project and create content like game scripts and level designs, designers who compose the game’s artwork, and developers who program the game’s functionality. 

Our process starts with brainstorms to generate as many different ideas as we can. This is a delightful part of the process! We gradually refine the concept for the game, creating visuals and creating works-in-progress to check that our ideas are working.

We are constantly sharing ideas and giving feedback on each other’s pieces of the work. We also get feedback along the way from partners, advisors, and, of course, kids! 

We learn so much at each step, and yet every game is different, so we are constantly adding to our ideas about how we might approach various types of game experiences. I feel very lucky to be part of this exciting work!

Q: What have been some of the most rewarding moments in your career at GBH Kids?

One of the most rewarding parts of producing children’s media is play testing our work in progress with local kids! We notice how kids play the games and what kinds of instructions or help they need. We ask the kids what’s fun or frustrating about the games and what they’d like to see changed or added. It’s a crucial part of making sure that our games are clear, fun, and have the right level of challenge. 

Seeing kids get excited by the games and thinking about how to add to them is so fun and a good, concrete reminder of why I do what I do. The kids also like to learn about the different jobs that go into producing children’s media and are often surprised to know that it happens nearby!

Q: Louise, what are some of your favorite things about living here? 

Watertown was pretty new to me when I moved here 6 years ago. I’ve enjoyed exploring and gradually getting to know it with my family. One thing I especially appreciate is the access to nature in and near Watertown. I love seeing the changing seasons and wildlife in Mount Auburn Cemetery and along the bike path, as well as getting out onto the Charles River in a kayak. I’ve also enjoyed trying new foods and flavors in Watertown’s great shops and restaurants. Building new connections with people here has been a lovely series of serendipitous encounters - trying a class or running into someone at a shop or playground - and building familiar acquaintances and new friendships.

Q: Watertown is evolving. What would you love to see change or stay the same?

From what I’ve seen, many people in Watertown have a strong commitment to the environment. I appreciated seeing a lot of new trees planted recently. I hope to see a continued priority on protecting and integrating nature throughout the city. 

A lot is also happening with improvements to key city spaces and roadways. It’s been great to hear about the open and collaborative process for redesigning Watertown Square! As the city faces issues related to housing and transportation, having processes that directly incorporate the voices and needs of residents is a great pathway to continue on. 

One of my favorite things about Watertown is the ongoing discovery of amazing “hole-in-the-wall” businesses - I absolutely hope that Watertown keeps its rich variety of people and places with different but deep connections to the city.