App Review: Kid Book
Kid Book is a simple, well illustrated app with audio to match. It has some promise and some room for enhancements.
When you dive into the app you are shown an animal inside a colored shape. Each time you tap the phone you get a new audio piece (first the animal sound, then the animal name, then the shape and finally the color of the shape…lather rinse repeat). To advance you simply click the left or right arrow at the bottom of the screen, and you get a new set of items.
This app, like many others does most of the basics well but fails to give kids a reason to keep playing. There is certainly a choose-your-adventure argument to be made for letting kids float through an app. Based on my kids use of the apps, however, it is also really important to give kids something to look forward to or they will neither play for long nor return to the app.
Monkey Preschool Lunchbox is just one of several apps that has figured this trick out (review here). After a few rounds of the game, kids get to choose a sticker. Other apps I’ve seen use scoring or unlock features as kids successfully navigate through them, giving kids a sense of accomplishment and motivation to go forward.
Overall, the foundation laid for Kid Book is very strong, and I believe with some rethinking around the purpose of the app, it could be tweaked to become a fan (and maybe even Apple) favorite! Keep your eye on Stolen Lunch for more apps.
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