Zoo Playground: Games for kids

This app aims to teach children about animals and their diets and habitats, as well as using the heming to develop a range of other core preschool objectives.  The game is split into a section of animal information and another section of mini-games featuring the same animals.

 

The interface is so easy to navigate that even a very young child could start using this app without any adult input.  Upon starting up, you are shown many pages of animals, divided up into different habitats. All the information is very visually immediate, making it obvious for users where they can click and what they will learn.  The very high quality of the graphics and sound add to the user experience and allow pre-readers to access all the information on screen. After exploring the animal facts, children can flick through to the mini-game pages.

 

There are nine mini-games, each of which has been very well designed for usability, with on screen help and feedback in the form of non-obtrusive animations on screen.  Each game is also provided with notes for parents on how to use the game with their children for best effectiveness, including discussion tips.  Again, the screens have been very well designed to provide an engaging interface that still retains simplicity of navigation and information.

 

Three of the mini-games directly relate to the animal facts that the children previously browsed, allowing children to test their knowledge of where animals live.  The first couple of turns on each game are might slightly easier to allow young learners to build confidence in each activity. After a certain time, the screen animation gently nudges children to the correct answer, making the frustration level very low.  A third mini-game tests knowledge of animals' diets in a similar way.

 

Two mini-games relate to numeracy and literacy, albeit in quite a lightweight way.  The numbers game requires users to count a small set of animals and match the number , but a lack of progression means that this will be pitched slightly too high or low for the majority of learners. The letters mini game involves dragging and dropping letters onto the animal names – again there is no progression beyond matching the letters given, so children can just match the letter symbols whether or not they have any real understanding of the phonics involved.  Despite this minor criticism, the engaging nature of the app may well encourage more reluctant learners to have a go, so there's certainly scope for this being useful to some.

 

The remaining games are less geared towards specific learning objectives, but all are useful and well thought out games which will help develop creativity, concentration and memory.

 

Overall, this app manages to balance the provision of educational material with the engagement of young learners and manages both in one beautifully designed package that children will be keen to come back and learn from over again.