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← All case studiesBuilt by our team · 2023

Educational app for kids

Award-winning cursive handwriting for children. A penguin guide leads every letter from capitals to cursive, checks each stroke as the child writes, and turns progress into stars, outfits and handwritten cards for parents.

Surface
iPhone, iPad and Android
Built with
More than ten educators
Audience
Children learning their first letters, and their parents
Publisher
The product studio our team runs
10+educators shaped the letter paths and the feedback
3kinds of device, one experience: iPhone, iPad and Android
0worksheets to print, and no tears at the kitchen table
The challenge

A letter can look right and still be learned wrong.

A child who forms a letter backwards gets it right on paper and wrong for years. A worksheet cannot see the direction of a stroke, and a parent at the kitchen table sees it too late. The app had to notice a wrong stroke as it happened, say so kindly, and keep a small child wanting to do one more letter.

What we did

Check the stroke, not the picture.

Each letter is a sequence of strokes with a start, a direction and an order, written with educators. As the child traces, the app compares every stroke with that path and reacts at once: a nudge when the direction is wrong, a cheer when it is right.

How a stroke gets its feedback

  1. 01
    The child traces
    With a finger or a pencil, on iPhone, iPad or Android.
  2. 02
    The stroke is captured live
    Its points, order and direction, while it is being drawn.
  3. 03
    Compared with the letter path
    Start, direction and order, written with educators, capitals first and then cursive.
  4. 04
    Feedback at once
    A nudge when the direction is wrong, a cheer when it is right, before the habit sets.
  5. 05
    Progress a child can wear
    Stars unlock hats, colours and outfits for the penguin; milestones become handwritten cards for parents.
  6. 06
    Parents stay in the loop
    Progress letter by letter, and time limits that end sessions kindly.

The four tests, on this project

We judge every product on the same four questions. This is how this one answered each of them.

01 · Design
Does it feel right?
  • A penguin guide instead of a score: a mistake gets a nudge, not a red cross.
  • Stars unlock outfits, so the penguin ends up as unique as the child writing.
  • Milestones become handwritten cards children send to their parents.
02 · Mobile and backend
Led here
Does it hold up?
  • Feedback on every stroke while it is drawn, not after the letter is finished.
  • One experience across iPhone, iPad and Android, on shared family devices and small hands.
  • Parents set time limits, and sessions end kindly instead of cutting off.
03 · AI, retrieval and evals
Is it right?
  • Letter paths and feedback designed with more than ten educators.
  • Capitals first, then cursive, in the order children learn at school.
  • A letter that looks right but was formed the wrong way is still caught.
04 · Metering and pricing
Does it pay?
  • Not the story of this one. The work worth showing here is the feedback loop.

Three decisions we made

01
The path, not the picture
Judging only the finished shape rewards a letter formed backwards. Checking the start, direction and order catches the habit before it sets.
02
Educators first
The letter order and the wording of the feedback came from teachers. The code followed their path, not the other way round.
03
Rewards a child can wear
Stars buy outfits for the penguin, not points on a leaderboard. Progress is something to show a parent, not a rank.
What this means for you
If your AI has to answer while the user is still moving
Real-time feedback on touch is the same problem as any AI feature on a phone: it has to answer before the user moves on, on a device you do not control. That is test two, and it is where we start with mobile AI work.
Closest track: Build it from zeroSee the two weeks
What we can build for you
  • Real-time feedback on touch and pencil input
  • Products for children, designed with experts
  • One experience across iPhone, iPad and Android
  • Reward loops that keep practice going
Stack
iPhoneiPadAndroidApp StoreGoogle Play

Want this in your product?

Thirty minutes, no deck. Tell us what you are building and which of the four tests worries you most. We say no when we are not the right people.

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