When Esther Huybrights and her husband Mathijs Demaeght started developing Pok Pok in 2019, the new parents wanted an app that would entertain and inspire creativity in young children.
“There was nothing on the market that gave our kids both,” says Ms. Hybretz, chief creative officer and co-founder of a Toronto-based children’s educational app company. Masu.
Released in May 2021, this iOS app features “digital toys” for children ages 2 to 7 and was created based on Montessori principles. Montessori principles are an educational philosophy that allows children to learn by promoting natural interests rather than formal teaching methods. Pok Pok’s biggest draw is his suite of 16 toy games designed to be “non-addictive.” Over the past year, the app’s subscribers have quadrupled, and in November, Pok Pok won the 2023 Apple App Store Award as one of the best apps of the year.
“We created the app for our kids,” says Huybletz, whose children are now 6 and 7 years old.
In contrast to the hectic videos and graphically-laden popular video games of YouTube Kids, launched in 2015 by Alphabet Inc. GOOGL-Q, Poku Poku is a collaboration between the company’s other co-founder and CEO Melissa Cash. He chooses what he calls “soft.” The look and sound was recorded in Toronto, hand-painted, and uses only a handful of colors.
“The overall experience is calmer, slower, and calmer than an addictive video game,” says Hybretz.
The global educational app market is expected to reach a value of USD 102.6 billion by 2027, according to market research from Global Brainstorm Research. This may be contrary to good business practice.
Beyond the appeal of playing games, the foundation of the app, which is based on Montessori concepts, also provides an educational aspect for children and parents.
Pok Pok, which charges an $8.99 monthly subscription fee, encourages children to learn through independent play, discovery, and creation, rather than traditional models like addition and spelling.
“We really wanted kids to be able to explore and create, so instead of giving them games, we gave them toys so they could imagine and play,” says Cash.
The developers collaborated with several educators, including California-based pediatric occupational therapist and sensory expert Laura Pettix and Dr. Sudha Swaminathan, a professor of early childhood education at Eastern Connecticut State University. , we have made sure that the app is educational and non-addictive. .
Shop, one of the digital toys available in Pok Pok, is a digitized dollhouse with a bakery, plant shop, and pet shop that kids can create and care for while learning about items. It will look like this.
Hybretz says this freestyle play is another aspect of Poku Poku that makes it non-addictive, making it an attractive feature for parents looking to reduce their children’s screen time, which has increased during the pandemic. It is said that
The Canadian Pediatric Association updated its screen time guidelines in November 2022, allowing parents to limit their child’s daily or sedentary screen time (using any screen, including television, computers, games, smartphones, and tablets). We recommend that you limit your time (time) to no more than 1 hour a day. , for children ages 2 to 5.
“There’s no winning in apps, so you don’t have that dopamine rush of completing a level or wanting to play like you do with video games,” Cash says.
Pok Pok joins the ranks of this year’s Apple AAPL-Q Award winners, along with Copenhagen-based Too Good To Go, a sustainable food app with more than 84 million users that connects customers to restaurants. and stores with surplus food. His other three apps are in the “Cultural Influence” category.
In the case of Pok Pok, part of that cultural influence is inclusive design. The app features characters of all body types, abilities, races and genders, as well as LGBTQ+ couples and blended families, which Huybletz said was important from the time the app was conceived. “We wanted to give our children windows and mirrors” into the world. “