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Project Overview
Sketchpad Space from Kizzu is an iPad drawing app for toddlers and preschoolers which teaches children the fundamental techniques of drawing, such as sketching and lining. By teaching children the underlying drawing techniques used by real artists, they soon develop the skills needed to draw any object they like, while improving vocabulary and learning about the Solar System that they live in.
Organisation
Codegent
Team
Launched in 2004, Codegent started life as a web design agency, but has evolved into a digital product company that develops its own IP (with over 12 million downloads of its mobile apps) and products, as well as providing consultancy to companies such as British Airways, BBC, Microsoft and Nestlé. Kizzuapps is one of Codegent's own product brands which was developed a few years ago after the team saw how easy and natural it was for young children to use iPads and other mobile devices. Kizzu aimed to fill a gap in the market that would help children and toddlers to have fun on mobile devices, while learning new skills and building confidence.
Project Brief
Sketchpad Space is part of the Sketchpad series, which teaches young children the fundamental techniques used by artists and illustrators, such as sketching and lining.
Within Sketchpad Space, children are encouraged to explore an exciting Space parallax setting, with Kizzy, their artist guide.There is a range of images the children can draw such as aliens, space shuttles, planets and Astronauts. A clear voiceover introduces them to each object and also provides snippets of information to help children learn more about what goes on in the solar system.
After selecting an object, a step-by-step guide shows them how to sketch and line a drawing before using the artist’s toolbox to bring it to life.
Sketchpad Space encourages creative play by providing children with an extensive colour palette and pattern stamps so that they can experiment and make the drawing their own. Once the drawing has been completed it can be saved to a gallery for the child to keep or added to Facebook or Twitter by Mum or Dad, to share with the whole family.
Project Need
Many children are encouraged to draw and paint at a young age, but very few are taught the fundamental drawing techniques which help them to sketch and draw more complex objects. Most applications on the market teach children to draw what they see, but when an app or toy is created in this way all it really teaches the child is how to trace. We wanted children to learn the underlying techniques of drawing which are used by real artists. The Sketchpad series helps children learn that no object or image is too hard to draw when you know the basics.
The Space theme of Sketchpad Space was inspired by an article in the Metro that stated 1 in 10 six to ten year olds didn’t know that they lived on the planet Earth. As well as teaching children fundamental drawing techniques, the flow of the app has been crafted so that it takes children on an exciting journey and teaches them more about the Solar System and the planet that they live on in a fun and engaging way.
User Experience
There are many factors to consider while building a children’s app. Children use and navigate their way around applications very differently to adults so within all of the Kizzuapps there is a need to provide a journey that is simple, understandable and beautiful. The parallax setting and bright animations used in Sketchpad Space ensure that it is exciting for the child and can keep them occupied for a longer amount of time. We also use simple commands such as touch and swipe which are appropriate for the age group of the children the app is aimed towards. Our apps are tested throughout each stage of the development process and the final interface of Sketchpad Space, was simplified from the initial design to ensure that children could navigate the app themselves and learn from within the app what they needed to do at each stage. This ensures from a parent’s perspective, that the app can be played either together or by the child on their own.
Project Marketing
Due to the nature of the children’s apps market, word of mouth recommendation is a key part of the Kizzu brand strategy. To this end, we have built relationships with bloggers and websites who specialise in education and parenting so that they can review our apps and provide feedback to the general public on their quality and value. We also work in partnership with sites such as Smart Apps for Kids and Mom with Apps, on promotions such as App Friday, which provides free app recommendations to parents.
This has become an effective marketing channel for our apps and has led to the Sketchpad series being noticed by Apple and featured on the iTunes homepage.
Kizzu also uses social media channels and its blog to build a community of followers who we engage with on a daily basis. Through our social channels, we run regular competitions such as a drawing competition for Sketchpad which invited children to submit their favourite sketchpad drawings, with one child winning a drawing goodie bag.
Project Privacy
We know that if a parent is going to give their child an app to play with, they have to be able to trust it. We ensure that our apps never contain third party advertising and that we only ever include a single In-App purchase upgrade, which has a parental restriction to ensure it cannot be accessed by the child.
We also adhere to a strict privacy policy which is explained further on our website: http://www.kizzuapps.com/privacy-policy/
Education & Family
This category relates to applications associated with family activities and entertainment, childhood development and education.
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