eBooks for kids take a step backward in 3-Little PigsThe field of interactive children's eBooks has become quite sophisticated over the last number of months. Products from Oceanhouse Media and My Black Dog Books are quite impressive and offer children four years and up a satisfying interactive experience as they traverse their way through well-designed stories with lots of animation and variations to keep things interesting. It's become the norm that when a child taps on something in one of these books, he or she gets immediate feedback on the item of interest.
3-Little Pigs (US$3.99) for the iPad is a major step backward in a field that has been constantly improving. When I first downloaded it a few days ago, the price was $6.99 and quickly dropped. Even at $3.99 I consider it too expensive by half. What you get looks like a very rough first draft of what could be a good eBook. A good example of the rawness of the app is that when you launch it, you have no idea what to do next. I contacted the publishers and was told that you need to tap on the bottom right corner of the screen and that this problem will be fixed in the next revision. That's fine, but I'm reviewing the current version and kids would be left frustrated and unhappy with not knowing what to do. How hard would it have been to add a graphic telling the kids where to tap?
The instructions are given on the second page, using the standard tap right to progress, tap left to go back and tap on objects to interact. Double tapping on the bottom brings up a ribbon allowing you to go to any particular page. Options are given to turn the music on or off, and to have the words appear in either English or Slovak. The English needed a decent proofread, since if you're teaching a child to read, text like "I want to build a house my- self." is not helpful. It's also not very helpful that the app only runs in portrait mode.Continue reading eBooks for kids take a step backward in 3-Little PigseBooks for kids take a step backward in 3-Little Pigs originally appeared on TUAW on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Source | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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