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You might not know Oceanhouse Media by name, but they have quickly asserted themselves as one of the leading developers of ebook apps through their licensing relationship with Dr. Seuss Enterprises, among others.
They have done Dr. Seuss and the other published titles a great service through simple, but inventive design that appears to have hit the right balance between respecting the quality content that parents know and love, and introducing it to the next generations in a way that maintains its currency and appeal in the digital age. They have demonstrated, perhaps earlier than most, the value of finding quality content and developing apps from already well recognised and valued children's stories and images.
This is why GeekDad jumped at the chance to fire a few questions at Oceanhouse founder, Michel Kripalani and see what his thoughts are about children, technology and making apps that families will enjoy.
So, how does a developer go about securing Dr.Seuss titles?
Well, Michel said: "We had already secured two very strong licenses before we approached Dr. Seuss. I had a connection that was willing to do a personal introduction. A 30 minute phone call turned into an invitation for a face-to-face meeting. As you can imagine, I was extremely well prepared for that meeting. We showed a full operational demo on an iPhone. After a few months of negotiations, we had a signed deal. Once other publishers and authors saw the quality of the Dr. Seuss apps in the App Store and once they realized how well they were being received, the phone started to ring. We've lined up some great, as yet unannounced, titles."
Michel made it clear from the outset that targeting publishers who already produced content that was respected and well-recieved by parents and children was the aim, "This was a deliberate decision. Our goal has always been to work with high-quality, recognizable printed material and find an elegant way to adapt it to mobile devices."
And, elegant it is. But, also intelligent. GeekDad were interested in asking Michel what makes a good digital story and how that is different to a standard story. The response was simple, but also of value to anyone in the space of developing eBooks.
Michel Kripalani, on digital stories: "I believe that one has to be true to the original intent of the book. Dr. Seuss books have been written with one goal above all else. "Teach children how to read." When you step back and think about this, you can see how this would be easy to use as a gating factor for all decisions. For every feature in consideration we ask ourselves, "Will this make it easier for a child to learn how to read?" If so, the feature oftentimes goes in. If not, it definitely gets tossed.
We've had lots of cool game ideas, for example. Rather than roll them into the books, we developed the ideas as separate apps. I, for one, don't believe that games should be packed in with children's eBooks when the core idea is to teach reading. The game only becomes a distraction."
This is clearly one of the defining factors of Oceanhouse Media's success - to stay true to the original goals and intent of the book. The functionality that allows children to touch individual words that are read out, or touch pictures in the book that then highlights and reads the word associated with that picture clearly evolves as a function from the 'teach children how to read' goal.
Oceanhouse Media also has a team that are very focussed on child development and their market research is often done in house. "[W]e are all parents ourselves. So, we use our own children as testers. Beyond this, one of the core members of OM and his wife have been home-schooling their 5 children for years. So, they have a lot of experience with teaching reading. Additionally, another OM core of member is married to a speech therapist who works full-time with elementary school children. So, she is able to bring a lot of useful data to the table. We feel very dialed-in to the needs of children," Michel said.
A combination of design driven by intent and ideas, a respect and value of children and focus on their development in terms of literacy and reading means that Oceanhouse have helped to establish a platform on which eBook apps can build. At GeekDad we are thrilled at the level of engagement and thought many developers are putting in to build apps for children. Oceanhouse Media are definitely a publisher to revisit come birthday and gift giving time - including this Halloween.
