Developing apps for kids has always been an arduous and tedious task. Irrespective of other app development, the use of technology, design, interface and other alignment focus is higher to deliver a perfect mobile application for kids. Many designers and developers fail to understand when developing an app for kids.
Although children today are highly familiar to the technological world, still they need to be assisted when using applications and the latest technologies, this makes the coding and testing of the mobile application for kids a big challenge. In this article, we have collected certain factors to keep in mind while developing apps for kids.
Basic Fundamentals of Mobile App Development
Let’s look into some of the important and fundamentals of developing a mobile application for kids.
Find your Target Audience
Finding your target audience is the initial phase of development. Based on the audience, the theme and design developed as the school going children may react differently to an application designed for a grown-up kid. The interest and world of a preschooler are unlike than a 10-year old kid. It is always important to imperative to be specific about target audience (kids) your app going serve.
Do a basic analysis and separate kids by their age group, the likelihood of interest, behaviour into different slots. A comprehensive study will give a clear view of who is your target audience and what to deliver for a responsive output.
Describe a Motive for download
Once you find the target audience, you need to set up the motive to download the application. How will they reach to your application in the store to download? Set up the criteria under which your application would be selected or rejected. Also, explore what you are going to deliver through your application.
Do not Forget the Decision Makers
Your app does not end only kids; it also deals with their parents. Apps for kids categorized into two types, one is for educational purposes, and another one is for entertainment. It is always important to study the mindset of the parents to accept and allow the application for longer use.
As per the Grunwald Mobile Study, 80% of the young parents believe that mobile apps make learning fun to their children and thus encourage widespread use and promote among the kids.
The user interface is an important aspect of designing a mobile application for kids; this helps the app to succeed and become famous among the users. The designers should always be attractive, attentive to get rid of complications and simplify the designs. Here are some of the major points to consider while developing the applications.
- Importance of UI/UX Design
The mindset of kids is completely different than adults. User interfaces and designing play a vital role in applications for kids. The bright, multi-coloured, vibrant landscape of the app attracts the kids more than sophisticated and formally designed apps that are usually preferred by adults. Designers and developers need to understand the psychographics of the target audience and implement the latest UI trends in the industry. A simple, easily navigational, desirable user interface for both kids and parents makes the application reach the right audience and make it successful.
Flexibility makes a good experience
Make sure that the application is great enough to help kids easily access and adapt to its interface. The kids are naive to adapt to a complicated interface which can result in switching to another application that serves friendly and easy interface.
User-Friendly Application
Never forget that your audience is kids and not experts and genius to deliver a high-end application. Make your application simple and elementary to learn and use. They must not be composed of with difficult language, and navigation must not be a burden to them. It stated that educational applications help kids improve their vocabulary remarkably higher.
Make your App look unique and engaging
A mobile application developed for kids should not be a usual application that sounds like a normal education. There are several applications developed to convert education into gamification, fun learning for kids. The love for games will never end among kids, but at the same time, gaining knowledge is important, which has ended in mixing both and making things interesting. Gamification has helped many educational applications for kids to deliver education in an interesting way that serves knowledge and information and keeps them interactive.
Developing a mobile application for kids is a big task that has to be designed and executed carefully for a successful outcome. As the usage of mobile and technologies among modern kids have increased, application developers must have a keen note in delivering quality information that positively enlightens the life of kids. The generation is tech-savvy, so making your application acceptable among people need great involvement and following the factors mentioned above.
