Big Baby, an iOS application for 3-5 year olds
Big Baby screen shots
“Big Baby is an entertaining and engaging app for toddlers and preschoolers..This kind of fun is one way to keep children engaged; letting children make choices and control the play is another. And that all happens here. A playful way to introduce the basics of caring and nurturing a baby.”
About
Big Baby brings four babies to life via a mobile device. It is ultra responsive, designed around their reactions, emotions and needs. In the application children interact with a baby using familiar open ended activities in an environment that provides a highly individual play experience. Children can feed, change, play, settle, dress and comfort their baby.
Big Baby is designed around the universal theme of family, a context encouraging young players to act out scenes they experience in everyday life, helping them make sense of their world. There are no rules. Building upon a foundation of role-play and open style play based learning, it’s gender inclusive and fosters creativity and imagination in its users.
We referenced what we loved, and what we had learned didn’t work! And our own lives.
My friend Caroline and I had worked together across successful products, and a few kids products previously (they were just ok - a bit flat, no depth) She was a producer, great at communicating, broadminded, and she knew quality. I was UX, diligent, broadminded and knew quality. It was about possibilities. It was not our first rodeo. We had both experienced failure and success.
Whilst were both on maternity leave, fantasising about how we could make something as cool as the Toca Hair Salon app, (from the Swedish Play based pre-school games company). Toca Boca were fresh, innovative and nimble - a game changer. We were so inspired wanted to do something for our kids.
We began..on our own play based pre-school product. At home juggling kids, and little sleep.
Research, research…so much research
Who did it well and how they were doing it. We looked at external environments, key players within the market, smart phone and tablet usage, how to get noticed, who we were marketing to, looked at our competitors and what they were doing. Customer touch points. How they were succeeding. What our strengths and weaknesses were. A budget…timings..resources.
We needed money….
Brain storming, and iterate and iterate and iterate - paper prototypes.
Juggling kids at the kitchen table, we talked ideas, and settled on what we knew. Our families. We would make a digital nurture doll..like Tamgochi? Kind of, we drew from the elements of our childhood. The dolls that cried and weed. But we wanted ours to be gender neutral, appeal to boys and girls, not drive parents mad. Be play based, and align with Australia’s Early Learning Framework. Something delightful. OPEN ENDED. It must be deep and open.
Divergence
This stage is not about ego, it is about trying out ideas, disproving, getting more, gathering, listening. Testing. Quickly on paper… Some crap, some gems. Sorting out the chaff and what would work within the play structure was the first big hurdle. From there, things flow, as it is about making the play work within the guidelines.
Early explorations
Get the money to build it
Realistically I had no idea how completely naive I was about funding, and looking back I realise we chronically undervalued ourselves.
To fund Big Baby we used our own money, sweat equity, our partners and friends, and that was tough on the two households with young kids. It was wonderful, but tough. We were all struggling.
We had a fantastic developer in India, and were so blessed, he was good and economically sound. We made it, and it was bloody beautiful.
The baby is born
Number #1 Education and Kids categories on the App Store across 20 countries.
App Store Best , An Innovative Kids App - 8 countries.
Parents’ Choice Recommended Award Winner 2014.
Metro Screen Development Grant from Screen NSW 2013
2014 Emerging Exporter NSW Premier Award
Awarded Screen Australia Interactive Games Fund 2014 Grant