Monthly Archives: January 2012

App Review: BabyFirst Encyclopedia

User Group: Toddlers, Preschool

Available on: iPhone, iPod

Price: Free

App Review: BabyFirst Encyclopedia

About the App: It is an early learning app for babies and toddlers. The idea is to playfully familiarize the child with commonly seen objects. For this purpose, words have been segregated into six different categories namely Zoo, Vehicles, Farm, Sea, Harvest, Art, and More Games. Whether your little one loves vehicles or farm animals; all the common interest categories can be found here. Each category is presented as a car trolley on a charming paper-art train that rolls back and forth on the Home screen. When a car is tapped, the photographs open up and can be navigated through by swiping. A male voice clearly pronounces the word and tapping on the photograph makes the word appear as an overlay on top of the image. Another tap clears the word and returns to the photo. Repeated tapping lets your child hear the word and see it displayed as many times as they like. There are 100+ colorful images that will help to gradually develop the vocabulary of your child.

What we like: Care has been taken to keep certain guidelines in mind while creating an app for babies/toddlers. Little ones love repetition, bright pictures, and simple words. The flow/navigation is easy as well as intuitive. Controls have been developed specifically for the fingers of babies and toddlers. Children love big things. The exit button of every section is large enough to be noticed. Cozy, fabric styled design elements have been used with pastel colors. It has a kid friendly interface. The photographs are crisp, clear, and colorful. The app has minimal functionality making it easy for the toddler to independently manoeuvre the application.

What we suggest: The app should have an element of discovery and guide the child ably to discover hidden areas. This not only stimulates the mental capabilities of the child, but also propels him/her towards self discovery and learning. A simple quiz can be added for this.

We also suggest adding sound to images helping the child to make associations.

The art section can also have a blank picture canvas to help the child dabble in colors.

Overall experience: It is an engaging application helping your child become familiar with the surrounding world. It’s a great way to encourage early language recognition in little ones. We definitely suggest adding it to your iPhone if you have a toddler at home.

Note: We are beginning a series of review of mobile apps from this week. If you have any apps that you want us to review, do send us the link. We would love to review it

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The ‘Learn Language’ App catches the attention of the media

Intelligaia launched their ‘Learn Language’ series available on the iPhone and Android phones aimed at improving lingual skills and using language as a medium to connect Indians with their roots. The application has received a good response and has caught the attention of the media as well. Recently, there was a writeup on the application in the leading daily ‘Indian Express’. You can read the full article here.

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Working with Startups

Eric Ries, an entrepreneur and author of ‘Startup Lessons Learned’ defines a startup as “a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty.” He further explains that many startups don’t innovate at all in the product dimension, but use other kinds of innovation: repurposing an existing technology for a new use, devising a new business model that unlocks value that was previously hidden, or even simply bringing a product or service to a new location or set of customers previously underserved. In all of these cases, innovation is at the heart of the company’s success.

When we hear the word ‘Startup’, specific images of “two guys in a garage” made famous by HP or the more recent wunderkinds like Zuckerberg conjure up in our mind.Investors are generally attracted to these organizations due to their risk/reward profile and scalability. That is, they have lower initiation costs, and although higher risk, they have higher potential return on investment. Therefore, we generally observe these startups race against time to deliver the goods.

Our experience on working with Startups

We must not mistake all small businesses for a startup. We have worked with companies and have gathered extensive experience working with technology based businesses. Teams come up with an idea to solve an existing problem. As professionals, we go the extra mile to ensure that we provide the best solution, in the most appropriate manner. Since we are the experts, it becomes absolutely imperative to let us diagnose the problem and come up with a solution. Startups must understand this and trust our judgment.

There is a process involved in all product making. In order to save on time and costs, startups invariably want to bypass the process. Ideally, all steps must be followed but if absolutely necessary, the main steps must be covered and they must allow the experts to decide which steps can be skipped.

Usually a startup venture involves innumerable iterations at various steps because of lack of clarity. This has made us come to a decision that a limit should be set for iteration rounds defining the minimum as well as the maximum iteration cycles. We have set a minimum of three and a maximum of six iteration rounds. There are certain advantages and disadvantages involved for both.

If you go with minimum number, the advantage lies in the fact that you can quickly transition to the next step without delving into minor steps/details. This will require prioritization of the required functionality and putting away of the rest for next phase.

If going with the maximum number of iterations, the advantage is that you can expand on your feature list thereby making the business concept bigger. But at the same time, this will impact the development time and so the budget. Startups must keep in mind that the timeline of going from idea to market will also increase.

Now, proceeding to the development phase, it has been seen that generally startups want to work with technology that is currently ‘hot’. They must realize that we as professionals know best which platform will be suitable and hence let the decision lie with us

Pointers to keep in mind while working with Startups:

Startups have the business idea and need to work with a creative technology team that can envision multiple ways to use technology to bring the idea(s) to life.

Not only do Startup’s require a very conscientious attention to budget but the help of experts to envision a phased approach to delivering scope.

It is important to understand that Startup business plans are usually light on detail, big on passion. There is one constant in being involved with a startup and that is change. Ideas and direction can change any time. Hence, Startups need a rapid prototyping method of development.

Lots of start-up ventures end up missing the opportunity because the founders try to reach decisions on everything themselves and don’t take input from the experts they brought on who are eager to see the company succeed but perhaps have different views on how things could be run.

Startups need to find their “one thing” to focus on. It at least provides some clarity on how to proceed and helps shape what’s to come. This is where they should take the help of experts.

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