Meet Backpack Interactive!

SOS Brooklyn, an award-winning creative design and strategy agency that creates interactive and personalized user experiences (UX), today announced the launch of their next chapter, Backpack Interactive. Driven by 18 years of experience in the edTech world and a passion to serve as champions of the end user, the new division will create high-impact learning solutions for teachers and students.

“Today’s learners grew up with devices in their hands, so they are sophisticated consumers of digital-product design,” said Sean Oakes, the Principal and Co-founder of SOS Brooklyn and Backpack Interactive. “Then they get to school and see software that’s just a vehicle to present math, reading or science content, with not enough emphasis on making learning fun and engaging. Backpack Interactive will help our clients support struggling students and engage gifted students by building interactive tools that have a long-lasting, powerful effect on deep learning.”

Working to create edtech products for non-profits, governmental agencies, and leading education companies, SOS Brooklyn has played a role in refining tools like NYCEDC’s Waterfront Navigator, Scholastic’s Leveled Bookroom Accelerator, and Learning Ally’s LINK app, an audiobook reader for students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities.

“I love to see learning that happens where it doesn’t feel like a learning product, whether it’s through great games or creating an easy-to-use environment that a student didn’t expect,” said Oakes. “We take our inspiration from how people play. Students are most comfortable when education doesn’t feel like a task or a job. To truly connect with them, we combine our UX expertise and our extensive knowledge of the learning process to deliver a product equivalent to the experience they have when interacting with their favorite teacher.”

Backpack Interactive brings this dynamic, user-centric approach to its work with leading educational technology providers, creating engaging and understandable experiences for both teachers and students. “If we can streamline the structure and flow of a product, then we can prioritize learning and not learning the software,” said Oakes.

The team at SOS Brooklyn has spent the greater part of 20 years building digital and web-based educational products. With the formation of Backpack Interactive, they’re putting education technology at the center of what they do, continuing to build on their expertise and share their knowledge. “We know that software can be more than a slightly educational babysitter,” concluded Oakes, “Backpack Interactive will help our clients bridge the design gap, building digital products that create transformative educational experiences for teachers and learners.” 

About SOS Brooklyn & Backpack Interactive

SOS Brooklyn is a creative studio devoted to helping organizations communicate ideas that make a difference. Founded in 2000, the studio has built their business on turning content into interactive solutions that engage audiences and motivate them to act. Their strategy, UX, and design work has earned them CODiE, Webby, and multiple W3 awards.

Backpack Interactive brings this expertise and innovation to education technology, creating high-impact, interactive learning experiences and offering everything needed to conceptualize, design, and build exceptional digital products. To learn more, please visit BackpackInteractive.com.