How Baidu’s ‘Good Poetry’ App Turns Classical Chinese Poetry into an Immersive Learning Game

Overview

Baidu Education’s “Good Poetry” platform is a fun, visually appealing learning tool that won three international design awards in 2022. It aims to present Chinese classical poetry as an immersive audiovisual feast, sparking users’ love for ancient culture.

Design Goal: Immersive Chinese‑style Audiovisual Experience

The design creates a poetic atmosphere by extracting traditional Chinese colors, patterns, and musical instruments (pipa, guzheng) and blending them with modern aesthetics to form a new national‑style visual language.

Visual Language System

1.1 Color Palette – Inspired by mural pigments, palace reds, and landscape greens, a low‑saturation, elegant palette conveys the serenity and poetic charm of ancient art.

1.2 Symbolic Visual Elements – Using metaphorical forms such as phoenixes, scholar hats, and lotus motifs, the design conveys auspicious meanings and cultural heritage.

1.3 Painting Technique – A semi‑gongbi style with fine line work and ink wash creates a picture‑like poetic ambience.

Auditory Language

Ancient poems were originally sung; the app employs authentic sounds of the guzheng and pipa, matching user interactions (clicks, slides, task completions) to reinforce the poetic mood.

Fun Learning Mechanics

Based on flow theory, the platform offers three game modes—poetry linking, poetry battle, and idiom fill‑in—to make memorization enjoyable and reduce boredom.

Game Tasks

Easy Operation – Users swipe to select correct lines and assemble full verses, aided by lightweight hint cards.

Gradual Difficulty – Battles are match‑made, with each round’s difficulty increasing stepwise, allowing progressive mastery.

Ranking Incentive – Leaderboards use imperial exam titles (Zhuangyuan, Bangyan, Tanhua) and visual hat motifs to motivate continued learning.

Intelligent Levels

AI automatically generates personalized levels, adjusting difficulty based on user responses and providing instant feedback.

A digital database of 280,000 Chinese poems eliminates the need for paper volumes, enabling anytime, anywhere access.

Cultural Heritage Preservation

Through “Good Poetry,” Baidu revives the cultural heritage of classical poetry, making it accessible, enjoyable, and relevant for today’s young audience.