December 29, 2011

To all toddler game devs: Skip main screen!

This post is not a review but a quick note on a favorite gripe of mine:
Toddler apps that have a "main screen" with buttons to start game.
This is just confusing!

SKIP THE MAIN SCREEN. Go RIGHT TO THE GAME!


Why? Look at the situation:
My toddler daughter quickly learns to recognize the icons on the android tablet.
She learned to swipe to the homescreen page with "her" game icons, and selects an app/game/activity.

Then comes the main screen - this is TOTALLY unecessary: She will never go into the settings page, she will never configure the game.
I will.

So: Make the settings page accessible from within the game, use the context button. She never presses this, because she knows it just holds a "boring" screen with text she cannot read. If necessary, make it "double click" - like some devs do for the home screen button (good thing for even younger kids/babies/young toddlers who cannot maneuver the android home screen).

No more toddler app main screens, skip to the game already!

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