13

Craig Villamor, Director of Mobile UX at Salesforce.com

Votes by Maxime Britto, Eystein Alnaes, Justin Maxwell, Ed Nussman, and 8 more.
Luke Wroblewski has a good post about creating touch based apps for kids.
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.as...

Comment Share Thank Report 23 Feb, 2011
Craig Villamor
12

Maciek Saganowski Suggest Bio
Votes by Jason Boger, Kat Tanaka Okopnik, Rizwan Javaid, Warren Anthony, and 7 m
ore.
Having designed our first app for kids (little ears - http://itunes.apple.com/us
/app/l...) here are some more points on top of what was already said before (big
touch areas etc):
don't include a settings button, which the kids can accidentally tap on - an
d in general - design for incidental taps, if you do need a settings button (any
where else then on the home screen) - try to design interaction requiring confir
mation (first tap: button expands slightly, second tap: only then the settings l
aunch, if no second tap after 1s button gets smaller - First Words did a pretty
good job with this).
design for interactive abuse - I mean, kids will (just for the sake of it) t
ap the interactive element like thirty times in a span of 1,5seconds - be prepar
ed for having your app crash tested in this fashion
don't require a lot of precision with interaction - ie avoid having to drag
elements along complex paths
kids don't have copious amounts of patience at their disposal, doing animati
ons - get them over with quickly, home screen or in-game animations need to load
fast - kids don't appreciate animation efforts
if a toddler wants to start from the beginning, he would not tap on a specia
l menu button you might have designed to resume the game and revert back to the
home screen. He would rather press the iphone home button, quit the game entirel
y and then launch it all over again - this means - no multistage home screens, s
election of modes, etc. the app should be ready to rock and roll straight after
launching it
recognize achievement with applause, praise etc - and in general, always use
double feedback upon tapping (sound + changing of property of the tapped object
)
Here is a quick video from our usability tests http://vimeo.com/19126882

Suggest Edits
Building Great Kids apps
Lata Sadhwani
Vote by Anurag Rastogi.
I wrote this a while back, but still feel strongly about this. Smartphones/Table
ts are an amazing new medium for learning. They are easily accessible to kids fr
om a very young age on platforms that are really easy to understand and use. App
s on these touch devices are a great tool to educate and engaget them.
We have developed some of the best apps for children including games and educati
onal apps. These apps have been doing really well for more than a couple of year
now.
In the process of developing these apps, we have identified a few key points whi
ch determine the success of a childrens app. We, as developers, make sure we foll
ow these points.
Be clear on what you want.
Dont put in too many things together. That will just confuse kids. Chalk out clea
rly what the app should do before starting
Make it intuitive.
A series of apps developed by us have been designed to ease learning for autisti
c children. The key behind the success of the apps is that kids can easily inter
pret how to use the app
Dont be boring.
While making the apps easy to understand, do ensure that they dont become boring.
Spark their imagination!
Make them beautiful.
Dont use computer generated graphics. Kids generally like colorful, cute characte
rs/graphics. Put your heart and soul into the design
Dont make it too simple.
Kids learn through playing. While being easy to understand, keep challenging the
m to learn new things
Use visuals as much as possible.
An image is worth a 1000 words. Visuals helps children learn faster and in a fun
way. This also helps targeting children from all geographies
Use the mobile platform well.
Smartphones are an amazing and very easy to use platform, even for small childre
n. Use this to your advantage touch, audio, visuals
Be gentle.
Dont use visuals or audio which might harm them. They are still too sensitive
Be honest.
Kids dont understand the difference between play and advertising. Be honest with
them. Dont sneak in ads
Take them seriously!
Address children on their own level, in your words. Dont take them lightly.
So what is your next big idea for an amazing kids' app?
*Anyone reading this post, who needs any advice, please feel free to get in touc
h with me via Quora.