Drawnimal is an iPhone and iPad app that gets kids thinking beyond the screen (Click Image To Enlarge)
DRAWNIMAL TEACHES YOUNGSTERS THE ALPHABET WHILE EXERCISING THEIR IMAGINATIONS BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF THE IPAD’S SCREEN.
Drawnimal may be my new favorite iPad app, despite the fact that I’m about 25 years beyond its target demographic. It’s essentially an alphabet game in which each letter pulls up an associated animal (“A” is for alligator--you know the drill). But naturally, there’s a twist.
Players are asked to place the iPad on a blank piece of paper. With a pencil in-hand, they’re instructed to draw a somewhat anonymous shape around the iPad screen (Is that a tail? Are those ears?). And only when the drawing is finished do they see an on-screen portrait to complete the drawn picture, a green cartoon face coupled with a warm, grandfatherly voice that confirms, yes, the “A” really is for alligator. (Just resist the urge to scratch the alligator’s nose. He bites.)
It’s essentially an alphabet book in which letters are associated with animals (Click Image To Enlarge)
Players set their iOS device on a pad of paper. Then they draw around it to complete a portrait (Click Image To Enlarge)
Interestingly enough, the faces you see here are the reveal (Click Image To Enlarge)
I asked Drawnimal’s visual designer, Lucas Zanotto, why more apps don’t use the iPad as part of a greater mixed media experience? He thinks that “developers are often focused on the device itself.”
“Using touch screens as we do today is still seen as something new and advanced,” Zanotto explains. “So in wanting to get the most out of the device itself, we often forget the big picture.” And that big picture is precisely what Drawnimal wants kids to grasp by, quite literally, forcing them to think outside the box. Or at least the bezel.
To create that moment of surprise… (Click Image To Enlarge)
…you’re asked to draw an animal part before knowing what the animal is (Click Image To Enlarge)
You press a button for the reveal and… (Click Image To Enlarge)
SURPRISE! It’s an alligator. Scratch his nose and he bites (Click Image To Enlarge)
COMMENTRY: I think kids are going to love this app, but I would rather see kids learn to draw from scratch. I want to see how they think and view the world.
Here's how the Drawnimal app works:
Click Images To Enlarge
Drawnimal features are as follows:
- Available for iPhone and iPad
- Over 30 different animated animals, with sounds
- Switch between 4 languages (EN, ES, FR, DE)
- Features the whole alphabet, with narration
Courtesy of an article dated May 6, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design
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