As we set out to build The Human Body, we knew kids would be an integral part of the design process. With each decision we made, we'd ask ourselves: What does this teach? Does it intrigue children? Would a kid find this fun?
We brought early prototypes of our apps to schools, Raul's kids' friends played the app at sleepovers, and we repeatedly invited kids to visit Tinybop's office to give the app a spin. We learned an enormous amount from watching kids play—about what we were doing right, and more importantly—about what we were doing wrong.
Our play sessions led us to conversations about the meaning of play and chidren's feedback led to revisions of navigation, gameplay and sound design. We realized some interactions were far too hard to discover, or tricky to navigate with small fingers. One little girl was terrified by our first drawings of the muscular system. Other kids wouldn't stop feeding the body until the stomach was bursting. Over and over again we saw that kids love making the app burp, so we added more burp variability. We heard gasps and guffaws, groans and giggles—and all throughout: Lots of great questions from kids who were curious to know more about the body.
We love play-testing our apps with kids because they always offer us honest, instinctual responses. There is no hiding real pleasure or skepticism, and when we start to get big eyes and big grins from kids, we know we are heading in the right direction.
If you and your child have also discovered The Human Body we'd love to hear what you think. Let us know (hi@tinybop.com) if we're on the right track—or where we could improve.
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