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26 November 2014
Reply, specialises in the design and implementation of solutions based on digital media and new communication channels, has supported Chicco in the development of Happy Tab, a fully-fledged Android tablet for children between the ages of 18 months and 6 years. Happy Tab is both safe for children and freely customisable by parents.
In producing Happy Tab, Chicco was eager to create a tablet specifically devised for small children, thanks to its simple design and its soft and rounded forms. Happy Tab provides children with interactive content and 26 pre-installed applications to stimulate their abilities at different stages of growth. The applications were devised in conjunction with the 'Osservatorio Chicco' Baby Research Centre. Furthermore, Happy Tab’s parental control feature ensures that the child’s use of the tablet remains safe and monitored at all times. This is because only the parents – and not the child – can access the Internet via the tablet. Using a Wi-Fi connection, parents are able to download new apps and make them available to the child, who can then play with and learn from them in complete safety.
Reply supported Chicco by deploying the specialist competencies of its network of companies. In the field of gaming, Forge Reply helped to design and develop most of the games supplied, while Open Reply helped to create a personalised user experience for the Happy Tab tablet, thanks to their Android expertise. This personalisation provides both the parent and the child with a specific way of interacting with the tablet. It also includes a system for updating the pre-installed apps, offers new apps and notifies users of new promotions offered by the Chicco brand.
Reply’s specialists in gaming, graphic design and app development pooled their expertise and experience to create a series of games that enrich the child’s experience of Happy Tab and stimulate the child’s skills in four main areas: language, hand coordination, logic and creativity. To facilitate this, a key aim of the project involved tailoring user experience to meet the needs of small children, by re-designing both the graphics and the development of most of the existing games on the tablet. As a result, the MP3 Player allows the child to listen to the same song in two different languages, for example, while the Goal League game enables the child to score penalties by simply dragging a finger across the screen towards the goal, without having to win or lose.
The personalisation of the Happy Tab operating system allows the parent to create a profile for each child, assigning applications by category and recommended age. The parent’s access area is password protected. In addition, the parental interface allows limits to be set for the amount of time that each child can use the Happy Tab, thereby preventing children from using the tablet for periods longer than those specified by the parent. Furthermore, all of the tablet’s access software and administrative functions were specially designed and include a safety mechanism that disables the tablet while it’s being charged. Alongside the user administration functions, the system for updating Chicco’s proprietary apps were also developed. This enables Chicco to activate a special communication channel with Happy Tab customers.