New Report Deconstructs Successful Children's Apps, Meep Store Offers Educational and Fun Variety

PHILADELPHIA, PA, May 20, 2013 (Press-News.org) Hundreds of games and apps are available at the Meep Store to meet the demands of any child. A recent article in The New Yorker examines what exactly it is about games that appeal to children. When it comes down to it the most basic elements, what is it that children desire? Clearly something piques their interest and keeps them coming back for more.

The article focuses on games developed by Toca Boca, a Swedish digital play studio. One popular app, Toca House, allows children to electronically clean a house. That is it. There are no levels to beat, no prizes to earn. The joy is in washing windows and hanging clothing to dry. Children enjoy these tasks because they are familiar and presented in a fun way. Housework to children is not yet a dreaded chore, it is a novel idea.

Other games focus on the same simplistic features. Toca Tailor lets children dress a boy, girl, lynx, or hairy creature. Clothes are added and patterns changed and kids play with what are essentially digital paper dolls. The focus, however, is not on beauty and the characters are relatively plain. Children find pleasure in the acting of dressing them up. Toca Hair Salon 2 follows similar principles. According to the developer, "In Toca Hair Salon there are no wrong moves: you can cut, color, wash, style, accessorize, then start all over again." Once again, characters are animals and other androgynous beings. Yet it is the company's top selling app.

The company does not focus on toys specifically for girls or boys. They make toys for kids. Each product is tested on children. Their feedback is integrated into the design. The first successful app was developed by literally cutting out a paper tea set, placing it on top of an iPad, and seeing what the children would do. They discovered that the spilling feature was a huge hit. Children liked laughing when something spilled and then cleaning it up. They weren't interested in making food. They wanted to set the table, serve tea, clean up spills, wash dishes, and start all over again.

The Meep Store builds its apps on research like this. "One of the great benefits of a tablet designed just for kids is that it's easy to select apps and games that fit a wide variety of kids, both boys and girls, and include those as part of the tablet's ecosystem," states a Meep Store representative. "This allows kids and parents to choose the games and apps that best reflect their taste and interest. With Meep, we include roughly 50 apps and games on the tablet itself, just to give a taste of what it can do. But we also include on the tablet a Meep Store that houses hundreds and hundreds of apps of all different forms, selected especially for kids. There is literally something for everyone and then some. Many of the items are free, if not very low cost, and parents can easily allocate Meep coins to the store to help kids learn the value of budgeting and making the best use of an allowance." The Meep Store is constantly developing and adding new games and applications.

ABOUT:

The Meep Store features games and application for the Meep tablet. It was created by Oregon Scientific and is a tablet geared toward use by children. It is designed with their needs and use in mind. All games and applications are child friendly.