The document provides guidance for independent developers on producing apps with limited budgets. It discusses self-funding an app, sales expectations, competition in the app market, top sales numbers, pricing strategies, usability testing, design tips for kids' apps, writing a design document, finding a programmer, and whether to incorporate. Key recommendations include focusing on a novel idea, iterative prototyping and testing, prioritizing features, and emphasizing quality art and design.

1. Getting Ideas Out of Your Head AND
Into the App Store
TRACI LAWSON
http://www.tentoed.com
AUGUST 3, 2011

2. Producing Apps on Your Own
In children’s media, we’re used to tiny budgets. We often
say “There’s no money!” But what about when there’s
really no money? How do you get started?
PHOTO CREDIT: PAUL MAYNE

3. Sales
It’s important to not expect to make money.
If your app is 99¢, you retain 69¢ from each sale.
Sales in the App Store often look like this:
SOURCE: TEN TOED, INC.

4. Competition in the kids’ app market
As of August 1, 2011, there were a total of 449,581 apps
available in the App Store
73,181 are in the ‘Games’ category. That’s 16.28%.
39,922 are in ‘Education‘ category. That’s 8.88%.
SOURCE: 148APPS.BIZ

5. iPhone ‘Games-Educational’ Sales SAT, 7/30/2011
BLUE CIRCLES = KIDS CONTENT BY INDEPENDENT DEVELOPERS WITH THEIR OWN IP
THERE ARE 6 IN THIS TOP 25 BASED ON TELEVISION IP
THERE ARE 8 IN THIS TOP 25 THAT ARE NOT CHILD-DIRECTED.

6. iPhone ‘Education’ Sales SAT, 7/30/2011
THESE ARE ALL INDEPENDENT, EXCEPT THE ONE CIRCLED IN RED!

7. Top Sales Numbers in ‘Education’
Top 10 = 200+ sales / day
Top 25 = 100+ sales /day
Top 50 = 20+ sales / day
Top 100 = 10+ sales / day
SOURCE: RUMOR

8. Things to Keep in Mind
Rumor is that the ‘per day’ is calculated as an average of the
past three days. One great day is not enough to really
throttle you to the top.
When Apple features an app somewhere on the front page
of the App Store, that will affect rankings in that category.
There’s no editorial board for what app goes in which section.
In ‘Games’, developers may choose two sub-categories. A lot
of apps in ‘Games - Trivia’ list themselves in ‘Games -
Educational.’

9. App Annie
You need an account to use, but it’s free.
Allows you to study the rank history of any app in the store.

10. Quick Thoughts on Pricing
Generally 99¢ and $1.99 yield similar sales volumes. $2.99 and
$3.99 cause a sales taper that mean less overall profit.
Another popular thing to do is make your app free, but...
in-app purchases are the bait and switch.
they usually make money through embedded advertising.
You can’t control content of the ads.
They’re colorful and eye-catching to young kids, and
touching them takes you away from the app.

11. Still want to do this?
Examine your idea and why it makes sense for mobile.
Does it take advantage of one or more of the following?
Portability
Touchscreen - Don’t just port a mouse click experience!
GPS
Accelerometer or gyroscope
Camera
PHOTO CREDIT: TRACI LAWSON

12. Still want to do this?
What will your app offer that isn’t in the App Store already? The App
Store already has a lot of:
Alphabet apps
Number / Counting apps
Flash Card apps
Multiple Choice quiz apps
Jigsaw Puzzles
Concentration games
DO SOMETHING NEW!

13. Excuse This Rant About Sticker Pages
Expected rewards reduce intrinsic motivation.
They place focus on the reward, and take away from the
inherent joy of the activity itself.
(Deci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999)

14. Iterate, Iterate, Iterate!
Before you seek out developers to talk to,
solidify what you want to build.
PHOTO CREDIT: MARK ANBINDER

15. Talk It Through
Don’t be afraid to talk about your idea with
trusted colleagues and parents.
Simply speaking your ideas aloud will help you
think of things you hadn’t thought of before.
Others will have ideas on how to make it
better. Maybe they will relate useful stories.
FURTHER READING: NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR COOL GAME IDEA BY MIKE BIRKHEAD

16. Paper Prototype
Depending on your concept, it might be possible to test
out parts of it with a paper prototype. This will help you
to:
Make sure the content is understandable to your
target age.
Test out flow of certain activities.
May not be practical for all ideas!
PHOTO CREDIT: SAMUEL MANN

17. Interactive Prototype
You can use tools to build your app without any code!
Picture Link for iPad, $2.99
inVision App, free trial, $8/month
PHOTO CREDIT: INVISIONAPP.COM

18. Usability Testing
Make sure kids find your app intuitive. You won’t be there
when someone downloads it from the App Store!
Take advantage of the portability and get out there.
Places to test include: kids’ homes, parks, airports,
children’s museums (if they give you the OK first)
PHOTO CREDIT: CHRISTINA APP

19. Usability Testing
Explain to child & parent that you’re not testing them, you want to
test this thing you built and whether or not it’s good.
Plan ahead - Make a list of what behaviors you hope to observe, and
places you suspect there may be trouble.
Don’t say a word!
If the child looks to you for help, ask “What do you think
you should do?”
Have your hint script prepared, so you can test that out, too!
If too many kids ask, tweak your design and test again!

20. Usability Testing
Once you have a feel for how much time the experience
should last, try a shorter time with the next kid.
Now that they’ve played with, and hopefully liked your app,
you’ve broken the ice! If time allows, ask a question or two
about their favorite apps, or other favorite things (animals?
colors? sports?) that might relate to your app.
FURTHER READING:
APPROACHES TO USER RESEARCH WHEN DESIGNING
FOR CHILDREN BY CATALINA NARANJO-BOCK
5 TIPS FOR FANTABULOUS KID TESTING BY ANDY RUSSELL
USABILITY TESTING WITH CHILDREN: A LESSON FROM PIAGET
BY SABRINA IDLER
VIDEO: TRYING VERY HARD TO MAKE GAMES THAT DON’T
STINK BY BARBARA CHAMBERLIN
PHOTO CREDIT: MAKEDA MAYS GREEN

21. Tips on iOS Design for Kids
Design the tutorial first. Think early about how to make sense to a new
user.
The best tutorials don’t feel like tutorials!
Angry Birds doesn’t have instructions. Why would you?
This applies to lengthy video intros, too! The player is here to play,
not to read or watch a video.
Limit use of text or voiceover direction to the bare minimum.
Get to the action right away.
Don’t make the screen too busy - simple is best.
Visual clutter is confusing to the user.

22. Tips on iOS Design for Kids
Make sure the app loads fast. Don’t make the user wait.
Correct touches should let you know right away.
A simple sound effect works wonders to tell the user
they’re doing the right thing.
If touches don’t effect action in about 1 second or less,
they will feel like they’re either incorrect or broken.
Limit use of “good job,” “way to go,” etc. It’s a video
game, not a phone call with Grandma.

23. Tips on iOS Design for Kids
Eliminate buttons that take a child away from the
experience.
Don’t use pop-up notifications! Not only are these a
nuisance, but they likely lead to a page that’s adult-
directed. This is for the kids, right?
If you app offers several mini-experiences,
design to sustain attention in each one.
Touch and hold buttons avoid accidental
navigation. Tally Tots did this brilliantly.
FURTHER READING: TODDLER APP USER INTERFACE GUIDELINES BY GABRIEL WEINBERG
APP REVIEWS AND ARTICLES IN CHILDREN’S TECHNOLOGY REVIEW
PHOTO CREDIT: GENTA MASUDA

24. Writing the Design Document
This is where you describe to the developer everything that
needs to happen.
Don’t be frightened; you can write it in plain English.
You might write your first draft before you create your prototype.
The design document:
defines the idea in explicit detailed language. The goal is to
remove ambiguity.
sells the concept to the developer as something she’d want
to invest her time in.

25. Writing the Design Document
Sections to Include:
Target User - Kids? What age? Their parents?
Curriculum or other goals
User actions / Game progression - this is the largest, most
important section
Scenarios
Art and audio assets needed
Special cases - what happens when phone rings, incoming txt,
user quits app, etc.

26. Target User
Be specific. Could just be an age range, but you might also
want to define:
Where the user is. For example: park goers, students in
school, museum visitors, etc.
Special audiences.
For example: siblings, children
and grandparents, children
and families with a specific
need, etc.
PHOTO CREDIT: MATTHEW H

27. Curriculum
Be specific! This could be a great opportunity to show
your expertise off to a potential development partner.
A programmer might look at your plans and just see a
reading app, or a math app. Talk about your approach.
Include fancy terminology and cite research studies, if you
know any of relevance.

28. User Actions / Progression
Be VERY specific. Programmers like literal language.
Be thorough, but be clear and precise. It’s your job to make it as clear as possible.
Start with the program launch, and write a numbered bullet for each action.
List events the program triggers, and events the user triggers, in sequential
order.
Write branches for things that can happen out of sequence, or instances where
more than one thing might occur.
This section will be edited a lot as you rethink your plan, and conduct user
testing.
Define the challenge structure.
Does your app grow more challenging? How, and what triggers it?
HINT: YOU CAN COPY A TEMPLATE.

29. 2.3 Game Progression
2.3.1. We begin with 60 seconds on the timer, and 000000 points in the point counter.
At game start, there are 0 frogs on the screen.
2.3.2. As soon as the game screen loads, the first frog enters the game screen on the
left lilypad. He stays for 20 seconds and hops off.
2.3.3. The second frog enters approx 7 seconds into the game, by hopping onto the
right lilypad. He does this regardless of whether or not the first frog has been fed. He
also stays for 20 seconds and hops off.
2.3.4. When a frog hops off screen, he hops back on in approx 6 seconds.
2.3.5. The game starts with one red firefly, one yellow firefly, and one blue firefly in the
sky. The player pushes flies together to mix secondary colors such as violet and green.
See section 3.2 for more detail. When two fireflies mix to form one fly, the two colors
that were used are instantly replenished. They fly in from off screen.
2.3.6. When a frog is fed, it is replaced by another frog of random color. A fed frog
adds 100 points to the score, and 3 seconds to the timer. Frogs eat when a firefly is
on-screen that matches their own color.
2.3.7. Level 1 continues at this pace until 7 frogs are fed. After 7 frogs have been fed,
we enter Level 2.
2.3.8. Level 2 utilizes the third (center) lilypad, and the tertiary colored toads. A fed
toad adds 200 points to the score, and 5 seconds to the timer. Level 2 includes 2
toads and 8 frogs. In Level 2, frogs and toads still stay on screen for 20 seconds, hop
off and return after 7 seconds offscreen.
2.3.9. In Level 3, the time on screen begins to decrease. Time off screen remains
constant. During Level 3, frogs and toads stay on screen for 18 seconds and return
after 7 seconds. Continue to remove 2 seconds until we are down to 6 seconds on
screen, 7 seconds off screen. (This means we plateau at Level 9.)
2.3.10 As we increase Level numbers, the number of toads also increases. Level 3
should have 4 toads, 6 frogs. Level 4 should have 6 toads and 4 frogs. Level 5 should
have 8 toads and 2 frogs. Levels 6 and up should remain at this mix.
2.3.11 The game is over when the timer runs out. (See 2.5) When the timer has fewer
than 5 seconds left, it flashes red and triggers a panic sound effect.
CONFIDENTIAL – Registered with WGA-E
Copyright ©2009 by Traci Lawson
Page 6 of 13

30. Scenarios
Similar to the progression, but brief. This should read like a
short narrative story of what a user did while they were
using your app.
In games, I usually call this a ‘Game Flow Summary’.
Often comes before the Progression in the design
document. I find I usually write it first to help myself define
the experience. After the progression has been
completed, I go back and edit this down.

31. Art and Audio Assets
These sections can be a bulleted list of the art and sound that will have to
be created for the app.
List only unique art files. If art is reused in multiple sections, note
that, but only list it once.
Note animations.
Audio assets might include:
Sound effects and the events that trigger them.
A voice over dialogue script. Use a separate document, if lengthy.
Don’t forget to define whose responsibility it is to produce the audio
content.

32. Special Cases
Define what happens when the progression is interrupted
by:
User quitting. What happens when app is launched the
next time?
There’s an incoming phone call.
A text message comes in, or another app displays a
notification on the screen.

33. Other Materials that
Accompany the Design Document
Wireframes and/or a Storyboard
Tool options include: Keynote, PowerPoint, Mockingbird,
Gliffy, or just use still images of that prototype you built,
and label the features!
Flow chart
Pretty standard, but very simple user experiences like
Frogs and Fireflies or Move Like Me may not require them.
Tool options include: Visio for Windows, OmniGraffle for
Macintosh or iPad, Gliffy

34. Prioritize Your Features
Chances are, budget or time limitations will cause you to
cut back somewhere. A priority list will help your
programmer know which core features to concentrate on,
and which are of less importance.
PHOTO CREDIT: PAUL EMERSON

35. Art & Graphic Design
Good art isn’t everything, but it’s close.
It’s a major key to getting featured by Apple.
Greatly adds to the wow factor. When customers are
browsing the App Store, you have seconds to impress
them.
Kids are sensitive to art. If you look ‘too baby’ or too
complex and sophisticated, they won’t feel the
experience is for them. Know what your age group
likes.

36. Finding a Programmer
Now that you’ve gone through a couple of prototype
iterations, it’s time to hunt for a developer. But where to start?
Talk to your fellow WiCM members. Many of us know
people.
Talk to people who’ve already produced apps.
Get to know local college students. Look for events
where they show off their work, and attend.
Networking works better than reaching out on web
forums. Rapport is very important.

37. Finding a Programmer
Do I need a developer who has built something for iPhone before?
Experience is great, but usually pricey.
Devs may be willing to work for less money, if they have a
personal goal of getting an iOS app on their resume.
Devs who know Unity, Unreal, and Torque can also publish to
iOS without learning Objective-C.
Do it yourself with GameSalad?
Now that you have a pretty solid design document, register it with
the WGA-East. (Do this before you talk to developers.)

38. Incorporate?
Apple only licenses developers under a legal name. You
have to give either a social security number or an EIN
Protection against being sued personally? (I’m not an
attorney.)
Lets you give contracts and payments to your team
members as a business.

39. Getting Started with Your Team!
Give them contracts. Make it official.
Have a meeting. Don’t be too worried if you don’t
understand all the technical terms. As long as the
programmer and artist understand each other and agree.
Write everything down and send a follow up email
reporting the decisions you reached.

40. Expenses to Budget For
Business Incorporation $500–1000, plus $160 NY filing fees
Contracts : $1000–1500
Art & Programming:
varies, get quotes
depends heavily on project size
Apple Developer Program: $99/year

41. You are the marketing department!
Get active on Twitter.
To get started, find a few people you know and check out
who they follow.
Don’t just talk about your own projects. Bring value to the
conversation about children’s media.
Blogging
Start your own blog, or just reach out to kids app bloggers.
Get a Facebook page for your business.

42. More Thoughts on Marketing
Choose smart keywords. See what is selling at your launch
time and consider planting a few strategic trendy words.
Advertisements are a waste of money. They just cost too
much for a 99¢ or $1.99 product.
Marketing could be a whole hour session on its own. It’s a
big time commitment. Check out the resources on:
Moms With Apps (Not just for mothers!)
Blog and Forum are both excellent.

43. Android?
79.3% of the paid apps in the Google Android Market have
fewer than 100 downloads! (Source: androidauthority.com)
The Amazon App Store has a bad reputation in the
development community as being unfair to developers.
NOOK Color and upcoming Amazon-branded tablet
device might be platforms to consider.
Consider whether or not your goals could be achieved
with a mobile-friendly website. (Although, that won’t make
any money at all.)

44. Special Thanks
The following developers generously spoke (or emailed or
tweeted!) with me in preparation for this talk. Please check
out their apps!
Andy Russell of Launchpad Toys
Caroline Hu Flexer of Duck Duck Moose
Gabriel Adauto of Motion Math
Ian Chia of Being Prudence
Steve Glinberg of 123 Apps

45. TRACI LAWSON
THANK YOU! CHILDREN’S GAME DESIGNER & PRODUCER
traci@tentoed.com
http://www.tentoed.com