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There's some great advice here. It amazes me how often apps built for toddlers make fundamental mistakes: interactions that little, fat 'starfishy' fingers can
by sambeau 16y ago
There's some great advice here.
It amazes me how often apps built for toddlers make fundamental mistakes: interactions that little, fat 'starfishy' fingers can't manage; instructions in text rather than voice or picture.
Flash games are the worst for this: at least with an iOS game drag and drop is easy and intuitive for a toddler - but trying to drag and drop with a laggy mouse is hard. Toddler will accidentally scroll the containing browser window or switch apps, which is very distressing for them. A simple, locked full-screen browser would be a godsend for many parents (which is what an iPad is).
I have found young children cope fine with the one button. Once they learn not to touch it until they are finished they are fine - if they accidentally push it they know what happened.
It's also great to see quality, intelligent software appearing for small children: Balloonimals is a constant favourite, Ramp Champ should be rebranded for the under-5s as it has just enough gameplay for them.
Something interesting: as my kids (6 & 8) have grown up playing iPhone games with tilt control they get very frustrated when they play games with button-only control. They naturally try to tilt the device. It shows that the next generation of gamers have no need for physical buttons - something that we were told was essential for gamers.
I've been meaning to write a blog post about this subject for years.
- sambeau 16y agoTwo surprising companies that have made these mistakes with their childrens' flash games: BBC & Sesame Street. Having put so much research and effort into getting their programming right it's sad that they could be so slap-dash with their online content.
- epi0Bauqu 16y agoAgree. For online, check out http://www.babyfirsttv.com/babyu http://www.babyfirsttv.com/babyu -- it's the best I've come across so far. It uses just the space bar and enter keys and the windows easily work at any size. The downside is a bunch of their games are broken, though they are pretty responsive about fixing.
- wallflower 16y agoYou might be interested in this behind the scenes recap of the making of one of the Sesame Street iPad apps (it focused on the technical porting challenges) http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/01/behind-the-scenes-making-sesame-streets-ipad-app/69589/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/01/behind...
- Prisen 16y agoMotion controls and button controls are not mutually exclusive. And buttons are essential for games that require more precise controls, in the same way that a physical keyboard is essential for writing long texts.
- sambeau 16y agoHaving watched my children I must respectfully disagree. You need buttons because your hands are now wired that way. My little boys are happier with the sensitivity of a tilt. They were never wired to buttons.
- Prisen 16y agoIt's pretty obvious that iPhone games designed to be controlled by tilt work well with tilt, it's not at all obvious that other genres of games work well with pure tilt controls. It's also a bit premature to draw conclusions from kids at an age where their fine motor skills are still developing. They could be getting frustrated because pushing buttons is hard for them.