Anima Phonics

The Brief

Anima Phonics is a UK-based education company that provides a DfE-validated phonics programme built around music and movement aimed at helping young children learn to read. They combine stimulating lessons, vibrant illustrations, and classroom materials to deliver a visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic approach to early reading development.

Anima Phonics had outgrown their existing setup. They needed a modern e-learning platform: one that could handle subscriptions, sell physical products, and give teachers a genuinely enjoyable experience. All wrapped in a refreshed brand aesthetic.

What was the process?

We proposed Drupal as the foundation. It is flexible enough to handle a custom e-learning experience, a shop, and subscription management within a single platform. From there, we worked closely with the Anima Phonics team to map out what teachers actually needed day-to-day:

• Showcased Anima Phonics content to non-subscribers
• Allowed parents and teachers to purchase physical products alongside subscriptions
• Was easy for teachers to navigate and use
• Included rich media content in the form of HTML games, audio playlists, and video
• Worked well across different devices and met accessibility guidelines

Our Approach

We worked closely with the Anima Phonics team to understand how teachers actually use the platform day-to-day: their workflows, their pain points, and what good looked like to them. From there, we designed iteratively, testing key pages against their brand guidelines before moving into build.

Using Drupal as our foundation, we delivered a platform with the flexibility to grow. Key features included a powerful search and browse experience with facets, filters and sorting; school-level membership management so administrators could add and remove teacher accounts without needing support; and a fully automated subscription and ecommerce system, complete with renewal reminders and the ability to purchase physical products alongside digital access.