
Växjö Lakers are known for their passion both on the ice and from various social projects. The “Reading with the Lakers” project, which started in 2018, aims to encourage children to read by connecting them with their sports heroes. Softhouse and Växjö Lakers entered into a collaboration at the end of 2023 to take “Reading with the Lakers” to the next level. Softhouse delivered a neat and user-friendly solution where students can easily get started with their reading.
– “Reading with Lakers” is based on a simple, but powerful idea: that players from the Växjö Lakers representative team visit schools in Växjö municipality to share the joy of reading. By talking about the importance of reading and sharing their own childhood favorites, we hope inspire students to discover the world of books themselves, explains Hanna Södergren, project manager for “Läsa med Lakers”.
-Combining technology and reading in this way, with inspiration from our local sports heroes, is something we really believe in, says Åse Thuveson, CEO of Softhouse operations in Småland.
An app directly in the student’s pocket or on the school computer
Växjö Lakers wanted to digitize the “Reading with Lakers” project to be able to reach students but also make it easier for teachers and parents to be able to follow the students during their reading journey. Since the app’s target group consisted of students, parents and teachers with different technical experience, it was important that it was user-friendly and easy to get started with.
– It has been both fun and inspiring to collaborate with such committed people from Växjö Lakers. Being able to help them realize their ideas, knowing that it contributes to social benefit but also being able to accompany them to the schools has been a lot of fun! says Robin Lundin, Designer at Softhouse.
Softhouse entered the project with the challenge of developing a progressive web application (PWA) that could be accessed on different devices without the need to download from different app stores. The application uses Google Firebase for backend, storage and hosting and enables students to easily log their reading time and receive encouraging messages from Växjö Lakers’ various players. The participating schools in the first stage are Östregårdskolan, Lillestadskolan, Ljungfälleskolan, Furutåskolan, Ulriksbergskolan och Centrumskolan, and they were selected in consultation with Therese Dahl, coordinator for the primary school in Växjö municipality.
– “Reading with the Lakers” is more than a reading project; it is a bridge between sports and education, where technology becomes the tool that reinforces the message about the value of reading – a project where hockey heroes become reading ambassadors. We are proud to be involved and to be able to inspire young minds, says Åse Thuveson.
Encourage reading of hockey role models
The new application “Reading with the Lakers” has benefited both students, teachers and parents. Students are engaged in a month-long reading challenge with support and encouragement directly from their hockey role models in the form of recorded and regular video greetings from the players – easily accessible, user-friendly and right in the application.
The project managers from Lakers have been given a simple interface where they can follow the progress of classes and schools in order to easily give feedback to the teachers about how the students are doing. The project is still in its early stages, but the digital platform has laid the foundation for a new way to inspire reading.
Project Details
Växjö Lakers
What? Progressive Web Application (PWA) for daily reading time logging, encouraging messages, progress tracking
Organization: Växjö Lakers hockey club
Industry: Sports technology
Number of employees: Approximately 10
Revenue: > Ca 150 m swedish kr (2022)
Technologies and methods:
Google Firebase, UI, UX, React, StypeScript