That Time I Built an App for my Daughter

Early sketches of my main characters

Earlier this year I had the chance to design and build an educational app for my daughter. She's two
and a half, very energetic, and the reason I do everything I do. In reality, I was asked to build any old educational game as part of a school assignment, but instead decided to make it more meaningful by connecting it to her, while giving us more opportunities to hang out together - even if I was calling it homework.

The reason I wanted to build a game for my daughter is because she loves the iPad™ - but sometimes I don't love her playing it. I struggle with the idea of screen time and the reality of what I see with her when she plays these devices. I don't think that giving children iPads™ is inherently evil, but it is easy for me to see that not all experiences built for the iPad™ are created equal. Sometimes when Lydia gets on the device her eyes glaze over and she doesn't move or react - while other times she laughs and gets engaged; she explores and touches; or she mimics constantly. In order to help her have more positive experiences with technology, my wife or I usually sit with her when she plays, so that we can make sure her experiences are more interactive and uplifiting - and also to make sure she doesn't accidentally buy $100 worth of Smurfberries. While I was watching her, I began to recognize the kinds of experiences that she really responded to, and which caused her to shut down and become a passive "watcher." Then, when I read this article on toddlers, and them needing to learn through free exploration early on, I decided I wanted to put my belief that the tablet could be a device for learning and growth to the test.

The Foundation is Set

So I had an idea of the type of educational experience I wanted to create - one that would get my daughter involved mind and body, would encourage exploration, and would cause her to be her normal playful self while using the tablet - but even in concept it was too vague and provided me with very few design action items. In order to make my game design more concrete, I needed to connect it to a real set of experiences or emotions. And that's when I realized I wanted her to behave the way she does when she plays with sidewalk chalk.

Screenshot, Gameplay Prototype 1 - No, I'm not joking

My daughter doesn't love finger paints, she doesn't like the sticky mess that gets all over her hands, and she doesn't go at anything with reckless abandon like you would expect a 2-year-old to do - but once we got her sidewalk chalk she drew all over everything outside. When she is playing with sidewalk chalk she laughs, is social, makes faces, jumps up and down, shares, interacts, and plays. As an experience it is a perfect contrast to how she acts when she gets on the iPad™ and her face goes dead, and she just sits there. So I had my core experience, I wanted my app to feel, for my daughter, like playing with sidewalk chalk.

Just to be clear, this core experience is not to say that I wanted to make a sidewalk chalk app, but more that the emotions and behavior that experience elicited out of my daughter would be my success metric - I would know I had succeeded by how closely her reaction to the app matched how she played with sidewalk chalk. This gave me something concrete - at least in gaming terms - to design for.

I began prototyping various concepts - drawing apps, apps that let you play with digital clay, apps for poking or stroking a character, etc. I went through several ideas until I came up with what would become Splat! Along the way I was able to pick up extra requirements: usability for young children and tablet apps is a real barrier. Most apps are designed like traditional computer programs, requiring input like the click of a mouse in order for it to register. What this means, in reality, is that most inputs for tablets require both a down and up motion - like a click you have to touch and then take your finger off. Toddlers don't touch apps like that. They expect the app to react as soon as their finger touches it, any time that their finger touches it. Often I will see my daughter get frustrated, and she'll be holding her finger down on the screen, waiting for the device to register the touch, while the device is actually waiting for her to take her finger off to register it. Then, she'll try to touch a button, but her thumb will be touching the screen in the corner, and so the device won't register the finger because in terms of "clicks" you can't have two running at a time. It's easy to understand for people who are used to working with computers, but toddlers expect something to happen every time they touch the screen - and the joy comes in the surprise of what does happen.

Design Process

Somewhere around Prototype 10...

My design process revolves around iteration and playtesting. I like to use playtesting and rapid prototyping to work out my greatest fear on a project at any given time, and then when I feel confident I've conquered one design fear, I move onto another. Hands down, my greatest fear beginning this project was the art. The central concept behind Splat! is that with each touch the toddler is either generating cute, squishy characters, or getting them to make faces. Not being extremely confident in my art skills, I thought to myself that I would design and program the game and then get someone else to do the art. When I did finally realized that if it was going to happen, I would have to do it - I decided to use the same process I use for creating games to create art. I drew hundreds of little characters and then opened my notebook up and showed my 2-year-old. I payed close attention to which drawings she liked, which faces she mimicked, and which she just passed over. Each time I started a sketch session I was able to make a more refined character based on what she had liked, and by the end I had a solid idea of what I could draw that she would laugh at.

Once I had conquered my fear of the art, I made a prototype to test the user interface, and see if my sketches/wireframes were too complex for a toddler. When Lydia played with it I learned more about what types of buttons she knew were buttons, and how her first reaction with any app is to just start hitting anywhere - so I decided to make everywhere a button that would do something. Then I tested the core gameplay mechanic, then I tested the ability to use it to teach colors, then I added changing emotions, and each time I brought it back to my 2-year-old to see what she thought. She was my toughest critic and most honest client. It was very eye-opening to go through the process of learning how to make something that she would be happy with instead of just going with what I wanted to make or thought would look cool or sell well.

I repeated that same process - trial and error with a 2-year-old - until I had a game we both really enjoyed. It took me around 4 months to get it right - but as soon as I had it done it became one of her favorite apps (probably second in line after PBSKids).

That was my process, and while it may not seem like the most efficient way to design an app - I learned more and was stretched more as a designer by having my end-user part of my design team than I had in any project previously or since. I really had to take my agenda out of the interaction, and let her drive what I made - while still trying to sneak in the educational elements.

It's a simple app, but I am very proud of it.

In the End

Final Screenshots

I considered the app design for my daughter a success. It's loaded on her iPad™ now. When her and I play it, we play it together. She laughs, looks up at me, and we have a good time making faces at each other.

That's the success story of my meaningful school assignment, but not the end of the story. I was content for a long time to just keep the experience I gained building and designing as what I got out of the app, and never thought it was the kind of thing I should publish. I'm used to working on teams, and hiding my own ideas amidst the great ideas and work of others. But then a close friend suggested that I publish this app, that it could potentially do some good. I decided to go for it and see if an app I made for my daughter can help other parents and other children. I know she doesn't mind sharing it, so I guess I can too.

Splat! A Creative Expression Game for Toddlers is now available on the Apple and Google Play Stores.