In our nearly 9-year journey as a mobile app development company, we have noticed one thing that sticks out like a sore thumb: the distinct paucity of quality apps for kids. Most of the ones already present at the app stores do not have any educational value whatsoever, while the reading apps for kids are generally boring. Our award-winning Story Time For Kids application has done its bit to bridge this gap, and we were delighted when Ms. Maria Thyselius Bergstrom got in touch with us in mid-2014 to create another lovely children’s app. This one was named Kids Tiles.
Kids Tiles Project Comes To Teknowledge
Ms. Bergstrom had been toying with the idea of creating a good iPhone/iPad app for kids for fairly long. The only thing that was holding her back was not being able to find and hire a company that was into developing mobile applications in Sweden – which could handle her project. Thankfully, the portfolio and free app quote from Teknowledge impressed her, and work on Kids Tiles started soon enough.
“It wasn’t the easiest task to find a proper app development company, I can vouch for that! And I wasn’t prepared to tweak around my vision for Kids tiles in any way either. It was a nice stroke of luck that I chanced upon the Teknowledge website while casually browsing the web. These guys seemed competent…and their portfolio was great.”
Maria Thyselius Bergstrom (Concept Developer, Kids Tiles)
Determination To Make Kids Tiles A Winner
“Me and my team of mobile app developers were desperate to prove that the heady success of Story Time For Kids was not a fluke – and we were indeed masters at developing diverse varieties of kids’ apps. The project from Maria gave us the perfect opportunity to showcase that.”
Hussain Fakhruddin (CEO, Teknowledge Software)
Initial draft design of the app (later rejected)
For someone with the concept of an app, the clarity of thinking of Ms. Bergstrom was the most striking. She provided us with a fairly detailed lowdown about what the main features of the app would be – thereby giving our iPhone app developers and UI/UX designers a solid reference point to start with. For starters, the app was to be made for the iOS (iPhone and iPad) platform only. Although not certain yet, we might create an Android version of Kids Tiles later on.
Overview Of The App
Several sessions of brainstorming (with quite a lot of caffeine being consumed!) were held at our office – to find out how we could make Kids Tiles one of the best mobile educational apps for kids. The inputs from Ms. Bergstrom helped a great deal as well.
“Doing the groundwork for any new app has always excited me. Even so, I have got to say – Kids Tiles was among the most interesting projects I had ever worked on. Every new feature, every additional screen color or design – everything was deliberated upon, and it was a full 10 days before the blueprint for the app was complete.”
Hussain Fakhruddin (CEO, Teknowledge Software)
We created Kids Tiles in the form of an engaging mobile game for toddlers, with subtle educational lessons. Six different categories – numbers, gadgets, animals, body parts, colors and transport – were displayed on the app screen (with sub-categories). Whenever a child tapped on any of the categories and followed the next set of instructions that came up, the game would start and (s)he will become familiar with the category of things chosen.
“The last thing I wanted to make was just another run-of-the-mill mobile game. I have always maintained that fun and learning should go hand-in-hand in any good children’s app. Thankfully, Hussain and his team got the feel of my idea, and made Kids Tiles just the way I wanted it to be.”
Maria Thyselius Bergstrom (Concept Developer, Kids Tiles)
Customizing The Kids Tiles App
During our long haul as a custom app development agency, we were fully aware of one thing. If Kids Tiles did not manage to grab children’s attentions at the first go, it would be doomed for ‘failure’ – the one word that is alien to Teknowledge. Our mobile app developers set up child-friendly controls for this iOS app for kids, HD images and illustrations were used, and attractive color schemes/combinations were implemented. The gameplay (identifying the ‘right’ things within a specified period of time) had a nice, competitive streak about it. The sound effects could also be adjusted easily.
“What is the point of making a mobile app for kids, if kids cannot use it on their own? This was a thought that considerably influenced the inclusion and arrangement of features in the Kids Tiles application. My developers were determined to make the app easily operable by children themselves. Self-dependence and all that for the little ones!”
Hussain Fakhruddin (CEO, Teknowledge Software)
The initial round of feedback from parents and teachers worldwide confirmed that Kids Tiles had indeed found favor among kids – and it was helping the latter to learn up about animals, numbers, gadgets and such stuff quickly. We had managed to give shape to Ms. Bergstrom’s vision, and prove our professional expertise once again too!
Giving More Options To Children
“It was vital to not lose sight of the fun element that any app for kids must possess. I wanted to give as many gameplay options to kids as possible in Kids Tiles. I feel this has been one of the telling factors behind its success.”
Maria Thyselius Bergstrom (Concept Developer, Kids Tiles)
Once the types of educational benefits of the app were chalked out and the general visual features finalized, it was a whole lot of fun planning the activities on the app. In Kids Tiles, we included three different tile-movement options – ‘Rise’, ‘Sink’ and ‘Play & Rise.’ In essence, the app was all about letting children enjoy the fun of mobile gaming and learn up basic things – in whatever way they preferred.
“Me and Maria were both eager to enhance the reach of the Kids Tiles app as much as possible. In fact, that’s precisely why the app is available in seven different languages. Language-selection on Kids Tiles is simple enough.”
Hussain Fakhruddin (CEO, Teknowledge Software)
And Then Came The Appreciations…
It did not take long for Kids Tiles to catch on with the young audience (much to the delight of Ms. Bergstrom and our in-house app developers). The introductory version debuted on iTunes on 15 August 2014, and positive reviews started coming in from the next day itself. In addition to uniformly positive user-feedback, Kids Tiles was praised at online mobile app review sites like thesmartphoneappreview.com. It has also been made available for free download at CNET (http://download.cnet.com/Kids-Tiles/3000-2102_4-76237612.html).
“When I conceptualized Kids Tiles, I was not at all concerned about the download figures or such metrics. All that I wanted was to make a fun learning app for kids. With the aid of Hussain and his team, Kids Tiles turned out to be a much bigger success story than…well…what I had originally envisaged.”
Maria Thyselius Bergstrom (Concept Developer, Kids Tiles)
Version 1.0.1 of Kids Tiles was released a couple of weeks after the app’s launch at iTunes, with small-time bug fix updates. The app is currently available for free download at https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/kids-tiles/id898758246.
After Story Time For Kids and Story Monster – Kids Tiles was yet another successful foray into the domain of mobile apps for kids by Teknowledge. We feel we did a good job (and Maria would probably agree) – even if we are saying so ourselves!