

Show HN: A different kind of coloring book for kids (Android). Simple and clean. - martinadamek
http://samocolors.com

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davidw
Looks well done, but it seems fairly similar to a lot of other apps in the
same space: "look, ma, flood fill!". That, or the big, fat "pen" that's
possibly even more difficult to do anything useful with for little fingers
than a real pencil or crayon.

In other words... I'm still not convinced that tablets or phones are very good
for "coloring" or "painting" for children. That's not really a knock on your
app, which seems about as good as these things get, but more of a call to use
the devices in a new and interesting way that lets kids be creative and makes
the most of the features the devices have, rather than emulating (poorly)
something that works ok in the real world.

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monsterix
David, need your help with something. How can I reach you?

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davidw
Clicking on my profile brings up a variety of sites and things, most of which
have contact information. I am always happy to correspond with people!

~~~
monsterix
Uh! Ya I did look at your HN profile; and also visited your personal website.
Have reached out via twitter, because your email wasn't listed here. Catch up
there :)

~~~
davidw
My personal website has a big 'contact' section at the top of the page, with
several email addresses. That's your best bet for anything more substantive
than 140 characters...

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martinadamek
This my new Android app. I really tried to make it simple, beautiful and not
annoy the kids and their parents with ads. Though I am not sure what is the
best strategy to add in-app purchasing and still be nice to users.

~~~
Splines
My daughter is 3 and she enjoys the coloring apps on my iPhone. We have a few
that I downloaded for free, one was on sale, one has IAP and one is ad-
supported.

The ad-supported one shows ads in a separate "pick your color" UI and I'm
happy with the design. It's a flood-fill app like yours and while the drawings
aren't as good as yours it's functional enough.

The one[1] with IAP is a "color in the lines" style app with a lot of UI:
Picking brushes, viewing past drawing and picking a drawing are pretty rich. I
ended up springing for the IAP (probably the first time I've ever indulged in
it; there's probably a marketing lesson in there somewhere). The app showcased
a bunch of locked coloring books that my daughter kept asking me about, so I
bought them so she had more to do in the app. One interesting thing was that
they partitioned the app's IAP. You could buy one set of markers, or
collections of books for a certain amount, or buy the entire IAP library for a
marginally higher price. For the record, I found the IAP design to be ok. The
price is a little higher than what I'm personally accustomed to, but not
unreasonable. What _does_ bother me about this app is that it continues to
show me ads for other apps by this developer. Please don't do that.

Hope this feedback helps you decide how to design your IAP.

Let me also add that it's mind boggling how the iTunes UX designers decided
that IAP descriptions should be truncated.

[1] [http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amazing-coloring-
studio/id507...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amazing-coloring-
studio/id507378571?mt=8)

~~~
martinadamek
Thank you for the feedback, I really appreciate it!

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biafra
A tip for other parents who let their kids use their Android phones or
tablets. You can lock the Play Store so a pin is needed to do purchases. This
also locks in-app purchases.

Older Android Markets did not have this options so I had to learn about this
the hard (expensive) way.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
There's a free app called Famigo Sandbox which will provide your kid with
their own launcher with a subset of apps you've approved for their use. As
well as in-app purchases, it also prevents making phone calls, sending texts,
mucking about with your settings etc. and blocks ads until you unlock with a
swipe pattern to get back to the full phone.

It's quite handy. I assume they make money via recommending kid focused apps
to their users.

<http://www.famigo.com/sandbox/>

~~~
codypo
Thanks for the shout out, it's always great to hear from a happy user!

You are correct on the business model; right now, it's promotional fees from
developers plus device manufacturer licensing fees.

You are also correct that we focus on a different use case than Kyte. It seems
to me they're more focused on location and telephony (very worthwhile, btw!),
whereas we are all about making it for kids to find and play great apps.

~~~
webwanderings
I was looking for family safety software for Android, so thanks for the
recommendation above. I liked your password entering setup :) What is it
called?

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martinadamek
UPDATE: All BUY and RATE buttons were removed from all sets. Only all-in-one
unlock is available in welcome screen and it enables everything forever. I
want you and your kids to be happy. Enjoy! New version 1.0.2 should appear on
Play Store in moments.

At this point I must say that Android is awesome in a way I am able to provide
quick updates. Love it!

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martinadamek
Thanks for all the feedback guys! App like this should never replace real
thing! My wife is children book illustrator (and created the first set with
animals) and she draws with our son on paper a lot. This app can help you in
certains situations, where you need to entertain your kid for a while and
phone is the thing you always have. I am also getting mixed feedback about buy
buttons, so I will experiment tonight and will bring better solution which
will be even less annoying. If you have good examples or suggestions, I'll be
happy to see them!

Thanks again.

~~~
Deestan
> I am also getting mixed feedback about buy buttons

Personally, I prefer approach where there is a free version with ads, and a
non-free version with _no_ ads and _no_ buy buttons.

Alternatively, some apps simply have the full version ad-free and buy-button-
free, and you can optionally buy a "support the developers" version from the
store. If the "support-app" is installed, the full version simply adds a
"thank you!" on the launch screen.

I don't know how well these approaches do in sales statistics, but I
personally go for products like those if given a choice, and I always pay for
them if I use them. If nothing else, it's more straightforward and honest.

It is very frustrating to have a _fun_ or _useful_ app which is only provided
as a free version and constantly annoys me with buy buttons and ads. I _want_
to just pay - sometimes a lot - for the product instead of watching ads and
being nagged to buy Koynz(TM).

~~~
ansgri
What ads in children's app?!

~~~
Deestan
Car loans and mortgage offers, for some absurd reason. Probably targets my
Google account. Consequence of the "monetize by throwing some ads at the user"
insanity I guess.

Anyway, I was talking about apps in general. Any well-designed casual game is
popular among kids.

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biafra
It looks really nice!

Since you seem not to use the menu for anything: You could disable the legacy
menu button on ICS devices by setting the targetSDKVersion to 14 or higher.
But do not forget to test your App on an ICS device. By setting the
targetSDKVersion so high you tell ICS to disable certain legacy compatibility
behaviour.

Partly documented here:
[http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/Build.VERS...](http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/Build.VERSION_CODES.html)

~~~
martinadamek
I've already played with that, but it had bad side effect on something (I
can't remember what exactly that was). I am going back to that in next
updates.

~~~
veeti
IIRC, building for 14 or above enables hardware acceleration for everything
automatically: that can cause problems. Try disabling it manually in the
manifest.

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shimfish
Have you done any usability testing with little kids? I'm intrigued to know if
they'll be able to instinctively navigate through the options. Also, isn't
using the hardware back button is going to end up with countless accidental
app exits?

~~~
martinadamek
I tested mainly on my 4y old son and then asked few friends to test on their
kids. No problems reported. Re HW button - I am thinking about design without
it especially because I am going to build iOS version that doesn't have one.

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razzaj
I think this app (although nice looking) misses the point of coloring book
exercises. I think that using a pen/cil to color is not only aimed at
fostering kids' creative process but also developing their hand-eye
coordination and improve on their focus. I dont really have the time to dig
out the references for this right now.

An additional side effect of this app is that now coloring takes less time. A
great feature of coloring books is their ability to "buy" you (the parent)
30-60 minutes of peace.

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rb2k_
Isn't coloring supposed to train fine motor skills in children? Just using a
'tap and fill' functionality takes that completely away from them :(

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diwaiyer
Very clean UI. I like how you can still do the traditional strokes. The touch
to paint can be fun for older kids. This is definitely different from the
typical coloring apps.

One suggestion: You should seriously consider iOS if you haven't already.
While the Android market desparately needs apps like this, your engagement
will be through the roof on iOS since you've designed an app that caters to
the tastes of a typical iOS user.

Monetization: I'd recommend pricing it at $1.99 & having a sale weekend during
which you give it away for free. Check out this terrific write up for details.
I think it was on HN. [http://www.1312.ru/blog/Pocket-Lists-sales-13500-in-
first-3-...](http://www.1312.ru/blog/Pocket-Lists-sales-13500-in-
first-3-months/)

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mistercow
I don't understand what makes this a "different kind of coloring book".
Because it has flood fill?

~~~
epaga
I think because of the zoom feature...at least that's what caught my eye as
relatively unique.

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Peroni
Father to a two year old boy who loves playing with my iDevices.

Firstly, can you tell me in simple terms what's 'different' about it? Amazing
Coloring Studio by Linqsoft Ltd. for iOS appears to be very similar. I
understand yours is Android but is that really a differentiator anymore?

As for handling kid proof in app purchases, the popular 'Elmo Calls' app for
iOS has a fantastic system which is a barely visible slider on the top of the
screen which gives access to the in-app purchase menu.

Good luck with it regardless, I'm always keen to see people build decent apps
for kids.

~~~
martinadamek
I tried dozens of them on Android. They are so busy, terrible UIs, ugly
pictures, ads... so that's where I want to fight - with a nice thing. Thanks a
lot for tips on apps, I'll check them out.

------
tdtran
just a little app for kids, but very polished and excellent execution. Free
and no ads. It's refreshing to know someone is still doing stuff just for fun
and share it

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TheShihan
I'm sure kids will like this but that doesn't mean thats something they should
use. Sure some kids (someone mentioned a kid with down-syndrom) will benefit
from such an app but I would prefer if my own kids would use real
pencils/paper instead so they won't be limited by the application. Of course
the results won't surely look as nice but I think it will benefit the
creativity of kids to use the real world tools.

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dclowd9901
Just a tip on the "Buy" feature:

Kids will instinctively mash the button 40 times to buy something. You need a
more complex stop.

Also, most of the fun of coloring books comes from discovering the weirdness
that happens from the overlaying strokes. The strokes are too flat, and they
don't "coat". You should add some brush "wetness" and add thickness with
successive overlying strokes.

~~~
martinadamek
There is of course short time between taps which if exceeded, then the tap
counts is reset. I'll think about another unlock, I'll just collect the
feedback and decide. I've got some feedback on overlaying strokes, so I'll
think about it for sure. Thanks for the tips!

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jonstjohn
Nice job! Looks awesome! Will have to try it out with my little one. I haven't
seen the other apps that people say are similar, and kind of surprised by some
of the not-so-positive comments. As far as real coloring books vs apps - I
really don't see the dichotomy. I think kids are going to grow up with a mix
of both, fulfilling different needs/purposes. Kudos!

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PuerkitoBio
Awesome. I have tipitap Coloring, but the colors are a little difficult to
select.Yours is very simple with large selectors (especially on a tablet!) and
the drawings look very good. Congratulations! My kids will love this.

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webjprgm
Doesn't flood fill defeat the point of coloring books? The kids will never
learn the hand-eye coordination necessary for drawing within the lines.

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nomd
Looks very polished and easy too use. Gotta test it on my nephew :)

Did you create the images yourself?

~~~
martinadamek
I did all the graphics, programming, etc. My wife (she is children book
illustrator) created the animals set and will create more. Others are licensed
from other profesional illustrators from stock sites.

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rodolphoarruda
What would be the recommended age for kids to play with this? My daughter is
17 months old.

~~~
martinadamek
From experience with my son (now 4y old) I think it's about 2 years. But if
parent will assist, kids learn quickly :-)

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cncool
Why no iOS?

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mkl
Seriously? He just launched, and there are good reasons to start with Android,
especially if you don't already own a Mac.

~~~
mdda
Moreover, going off the discussion on the KytePhone app yesterday, Android
offers the chance of hardening your device more thoroughly against curious
little fingers.

That, and the lower price-point (particularly if you by an off-contract phone,
~AndroidTouch, on ebay), is a clear win for developing kids stuff on Android.

