PeKay's Little Author

This presentation was actually the first time I had heard of this application. So in order to get familiarized, i decided to go ahead and try it myself. This app apparently originated from Japan, which i thought was really cool. It has some really cool features and the UI is really cute. Users can basically create little story books and share them across the board with other users of the application. Last I saw, the app has about 127 monthly users, which is not a lot but still significant. I was also amazed at the depth of implementation of the app. 

Initially I thought it would be a flash plugin, but actually it really is all HTML and javascript. That's pretty amazing to me, as the implementation is definitely not something trivial.

The presenting team did a wonderful job with the presentation. I found it really engaging and the layout of the slides were very attractive and really relates to the application. They also brought up a number of points which i agree with, one of which was the interactive UI of the application, particularly the drag and drop feature. This makes it really appealing for kids (thats what they usually like to do right?). In applications like this, I feel the UI can be considered more important than any functionality. There would hardly be a point in implementing many features if the targeted audience didn't know how to use em. And honestly, I have never really given much thoughts about UI until now so I guess I have a lot of catching up to do.

Another point that really got my attention during the presentation was that the app seems to behave like two different entities on Facebook and the iPad. I wasn't really sure what that meant as I don't have it on my iPad to try it out. My guess is that it is still under implementation and it's likely that users will then be able to view books created on their Facebook accounts on their iPads. This kind of situation, to me, is really confusing? lol. I feel that developers should have focussed on setting up the integration before launching or the effects might actually be detrimental. Just my 2c =/.

The group also pointed out the possibility of implementing more sophistication targeted at a wider age group. The purpose of the app seems to be for social networking and encouraging wider social interactions for children. Children can design personal story books to share with other children. For older users, perhaps the idea of sharing books could also be attractive. Currently, its possible to share photos, albums or events, so perhaps sharing a book should not be so surprising. In fact, it might even take social interaction to a whole new level. Imagine sharing your albums in the form of a book, dragging and dropping your pictures and putting text by the side. Books shared can also be about experience and expertise, anything. That would be cool to me. Though, I think youths in the age group of 13-18 would probably find DotA more engaging. 

So, my thoughts for this application - well it is targeted for kids, so it's really kinda hard for me to relate to it. I did manage to create one book though, and I found the process rather, hmm .. 'okay'. It wasn't that boring (which was what i expected, sorry). But I can see how an app like this would be appealing to children. Its pretty much human nature to want to share stuff, like to recommend a good experience, or to advice against bad ones. For children, this would be more apparent as they would have less tendency to wanna keep things secret? haha. Anyway, I'm guessing this is the direction that this particular app is heading. A medium thats dedicated for children to share.

But really, is this feasible? As pointed out in the presentation, the age limitation for users of Facebook seems to go against this very purpose. On top of that, very few kids around the intended age group would actually understand how to use the app properly. The UI is good, but is still not so trivial that a kid could use.

After really looking into this application, I have also come to realize that the market targeted at kids is actually quite remarkable. There are so many apps aimed at children (i mean in the case of the iPad) and some of them have really good responses. Parents nowadays might want to let their children become more tech savvy by exposing them to such applications on the iPad as early as possible. I've never seriously considered this area of the market, but now i know its definitely worth investing time in.

Just my 2c, and i sincerely apologize for any offense made.. ^^;