Toddlers with an Ipad and infants already exposed to mobile use – this is the world of today. A totally new generation is growing, which doesn’t imagine life without a smartphone and growing up with mobile devices in hand. Making apps for kids so much exposed to digital technologies means a serious challenge as it means developing and fostering a whole new generation which will be running the world in a number of years.
Kids growing up with smartphones since they are born is an interesting group for marketing studies indeed. Never before has any age group been so exposed to mobile devices and to digital technologies as these Generation Alpha kids.[i] Of course, it is making psychologists worried: with the results confirming their worries – thus, the report carried out by the University of Iowa stated that 90% of children have a moderate ability of using a tablet [ii] - child and family psychotherapists state that they observe 3- and 4-year-olds that are already addicted.[iii]
No wonder that by the age of 10-12 nearly 45% of the so-called ‘mobile kids’ have a service plan.[iv] Among them, the vast majority (93%) are on the same plan as their parents, and 72% have all mobile wireless services including voice, messaging and data.[v] Once with a mobile device in their hand, the top activities of children 6-12 year old are text messaging (81%), downloading apps (59%) and playing downloaded games (53%).[vi]
Besides, they are active users of social networks: according to a BBC survey, three-quarters of its respondents aged 10-12 admit having social media accounts, despite most social media stating a minimum user age of 13.[vii] This is another source of worry for parents and psychologists who mention a lot of adult content of such websites not meant to be discovered by children. More and more social network application development companies are turning to making social apps dedicated for children, with the most popular ones being Kidzworld, GromSocial and Yoursphere. These apps guarantee child-friendliness and security, which is usually provided by monitoring and parental oversight.
As we see, different applications for a mobile device are of extreme interest to children. This gives much thought to developers of mobile apps, but taking into account the psychological fragility of such a user group as children, many factors must be considered. Mobile children: peculiarities of app development Designing mobile app for children serves an aim which is totally different from designing apps for adults: in case with adults, the goal is to help them cross the finish line; but when designing for children, the finish line is just part of the process (see Designing for Kids: Digital Products for Playing and Learning, author Debra Gelman).[viii] As a result, successful mobile apps don’t just take as a basis concepts of the mobile app development for adults and bring them into the process of mobile app development for kids. Like with every successful product, they focus on the needs of their users’ group. Simple as this idea may be, with mobile apps for kids the solution is not so easy. The mobile app developers are not kids themselves, they are adults with a mindset of an adult, so creating an app for a user who is thinking and conceiving reality in a completely different way, is a serious challenge for a team. Still there are some principles to follow when starting the development stage. · Determining target age range Children develop way much faster than adults. AppStore has divided apps for children group into a number of categories for a reason: ‘Ages 5 and under’, ‘Ages 6 to 8’ and ‘Ages 9 to 11’. 2-year range is considered maximum when you are up to developing an app for kids: a 4-year old child interacts with reality in a way completely different from a 6-year old kid. Focusing on a 2-year range will help with studying the behavioral particularities of the target group: at a certain age children prefer to jump into the game and find out its rules along the playing process, whereas kids of another age need to have the instructions and learn how to follow them. · Task accomplishment vs. conflict resolving. Using an app for an adult, be it an email, calendar, banking or another type of app, means solving a problem; therefore, a good app is an app more efficient in the problem solution. For children, the most attractive part is seeking a solution by overriding conflicts and challenges. A good example of this approach are the Toca Boca games, which won two awards from Beste Kinder Apps, a popular German review site, in 2014.[ix] These games, in which children take care of a house of a digital animal and placed in many other similar situations, focus on developing a learning mindset through overcoming appearing challenges – like vacuum cleaning a rug or feeding a dog – and not on gaining victory in the game. · Getting feedback on everything. Children expect to receive feedback on every action they are completing, no matter in which form – visual, auditory or another one. Kids need a reward for the actions they are committing – and successful mobile apps provide it. For example, in Yuby – a mobile app which teaches children how to save money and track spending – every time money is added to an account, a kid hears the sound of coins jingling and see bills falling from the top of the screen. Giving feedback is also important in educational apps. Once the answer is wrong, putting a red cross on the screen is not a good idea – it is much better to give another attempt to a child or provide him with additional instructions. Word Wizard, teaching kids how to spell with a moveable alphabet, is a good example: children can put letters in any order, with the app pronouncing the final combination of letters without making a buzzer signaling that there is a mistake. A child will understand himself that he has committed a mistake by listening to the word pronounced. Kids apps will be much more efficient if they manage to integrate mistakes, an integral part of studying, into the learning process. · Freedom to explore. Josh Sheldon, Director of Programs at MIT App Inventor, recommends, ‘Make sure it isn’t entirely scripted. Give kids the ability to take their own path or journey through a new experience’. Mobile for Kids: Don’t forget Adults Apps for kids still interact with adults: parents, guardians, teachers. Creating an app for kids, it is, nevertheless, important to keep in mind their parents who will be buying the app. Here comes a necessity to please not only children but their parents as well. Also at the development stage it is important to figure out a wise in-app purchases method which won’t bother and confuse children and won’t let them make purchases. Also it is important to figure out the way adults will participate when the child will be using the app: will they supervise the child and assist him? Or, maybe, they will fulfil the function of the troubleshooter and interfere when something goes wrong? Or they are separate users of the app who need to log in and have their own access to the app? The last option is often met in educational apps. Conclusion. With kids apps forming a separate and fast-developing category, smart mobile apps for kids can potentially bring huge sources of revenue to their developers. But apart from it, it is necessary to keep in mind that young users of these apps are the future. That’s why developers planning to launch an app designed for kids need to keep in mind that they are captivating the next generation today.
[1]http://www.businessinsider.com/generation-alpha-2014-7-2 [2]https://now.uiowa.edu/2015/06/how-do-toddlers-use-tablets [3]https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/defuse-toddler-tech-tantrums?utm_medium=google [4]http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2017/mobile-kids--the-parent-the-child-and-the-smartphone.html [5]http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2017/mobile-kids--the-parent-the-child-and-the-smartphone.html [6]http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2017/mobile-kids--the-parent-the-child-and-the-smartphone.html [7]http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2016/newsround-survey-social-media [8]http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/design-for-kids/ [9]https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/11/toca-boca-game-apps-kids-children-ipad-android
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
February 2018
Categories
|