1. J. Alison Bryant, Ph.D.

2. Kids &
Tablets
Today

3. Quick Facts
• About 1/3 of kids in the USA have
access to a tablet device (and that
is growing daily)
• In homes where an iPad is present,
90% of parents allow use
• Kids use tablets at least weekly, if
not daily
• 100 million tablets in circulation by
year end, and this will be doubling
in the next two years
Sources:
Futuresource
Consul/ng
(2012),
PlayScience
(2011)

4. How often kids use touch devices
(That their parents know about!)
24%
1
to
3
Times/Week
40%
4
to
6
Times/Week
36%
Every
day
60% report use 4 or more times a week
(This is only going to increase!)

5. Kids are downloading apps
29%
Yes
71%
No
Almost 30% of parents allowed kids to download
apps on their own.

6. Kids &
E-Reading

7. What kids do on touch devices
98%
76%
79%
63%
47%
Play
games
Read
or
listen
to
Look
at
pictures
Watch
videos
Look
at
websites
stories
63% reported their 4-8 year-olds reads or listens to stories on
touch deices.

8. eBook Adoption for Kids

9. How do parents
define
“educational”
in apps?

10. Interactive educational
content is important for
83% of parents

11. Educational factors for parents
81%
74%
73%
66%
Problem
solving
skills
Encourage
crea/vity
Teach
topics
in
a
Focused
on
specific
subject
area
skills
This is a non-traditional view of Education,
focusing on 21st century skills.

12. What features are least important to parents
29%
25%
22%
18%
18%
4%
Mul/ple
choice
Tests
or
Accredited
by
Relate
to
Endorsed
by
No
games
/
ques/ons
assessments
teachers
current
lesson
schools
entertainment
plans
Educational apps can have games (Parents OK’d)
Test and endorsements are not necessary

13. What do parents want to know?
Know
their
child’s
reading
level
84%
Know
the
reading
fundamentals
children
81%
should
be
mastering
at
their
age
Equipped
to
assess
child’s
reading
74%
progress
Important
for
apps
to
measure
it
outside
70%
of
the
classroom
Even knowing & having access to kids reading level, 70% of
parents think it is important for an app to measure it.

14. Kids’ E-Book
Best Practices

15. Context is Key
Solo
Reading
Co-­‐Reading
Bed/me
Reading

16. What Parents are looking for in e-books for their kids
Re-­‐read/play-­‐
Interac/vity
Customiza/on
ability
• Integrated
into
• Based
on
child’s
• Ac/vi/es
(games,
story
age/development
coloring
pages,
• Educa/onal
is
ideal
• Creates
music,
etc.)
adds
empowerment
and
value
ownership
• Extends
experience
(and
therefore
value)

17. E-Book Design “Need-to-Knows”
Iconography
“In-­‐Story”
Interac/vity
Use
universally
recognized
symbols
This
type
of
interac/vity
for
your
eBook
app
icons
and
occurs
during
the
story
and
consider
adding
text
to
make
it
makes
the
story
come
to
easier
for
parents
to
iden/fy
them.
life.
It
asks
the
child
to
par/cipate
in
the
story
narra/ve
or
gives
the
child
the
opportunity
to
watch
Story
Narra/on
the
story
narra/ve
unfold
Producing
different
voices
for
the
through
anima/ons.
characters
increases
their
child’s
engagement
and
interest
in
the
story
and
improves
their
story
comprehension.
When
there
is
Visual
Appeal
only
one
voice
telling
the
story,
Kids
are
drawn
to
app
parents
thought
it
might
be
hard
experiences
with
strong
for
their
child
to
tell
who
is
visual
appeal.
This
talking.
includes
rich,
bright
colors
and
detailed
anima/ons.

18. E-Book Navigation “Need-to-Knows”
Text
Highligh/ng
Interruptability
eBooks
for
younger
kids
should
Kids
(and
parents)
want
to
be
in
control
of
the
have
text
highligh/ng
to
help
naviga/on
experience,
which
means
that
they
have
their
child
follow
along
with
the
to
be
able
to
move
forward
in
the
story
when
they
story.
The
-­‐by-­‐ want
to.
Otherwise,
frustra/on
ensues….
approach
to
highligh/ng
is
ideal.
Moving
through
the
Story:
Tap
vs.
Swipe
Menu
&
Ac/vity
Accessibility
Younger
children
and
children
with
less
experience
E-­‐book
apps
should
be
designed
on
touch
devices
prefer
to
tap
to
turn
the
page,
and
with
an
easily
accessible
menu
benefit
from
the
extra
guidance
of
a
“next”
arrow.
that
includes
the
index,
key
Older
and
more
experienced
users,
however,
ac/vi/es,
and
main
seeng
mature
into
“swipers.”
op/ons.
Access
should
be
Parents
want
a
seengs
op/on
that
permits
them
to
afained
through
a
one-­‐step
turn
the
tap/swipe
feature
on
and
off.
In
many
process
that
doesn’t
require
current
eBook
apps,
this
can
take
the
form
of
a
users
to
leave
the
current
Young
Reader
(YR)
seeng,
with
the
YR
mode
screen.
Users
should
also
have
providing
arrows
to
tap.
Addi/onally,
parents
want
the
ability
to
jump
to
any
page
in
the
ability
to
navigate
both
forward
and
backward
the
eBook.
in
the
story.

19. Plus,
thinking
about
kid-­‐specific:
• Mechanics
• GUI
• Instruc/ons/Hints
• “Leveling”
• Curriculum
Integra/on
• And
so
on….

20. Thank You!
Let’s
Play!
J.
Alison
Bryant
alison@playsciencelab.com
www.playsciencelab.com
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