VolaFriends is an iOS application designed to help children who have difficulty with emotional recognition by entertaining them as they practice. Information about VolaFriends is available on AutismSpeaks.org. My team and I led product, design and iOS development.
App Concept
Kids love faces, and VolaFriends make lots and lots of faces! Your child will be delighted at the happy, sad, angry, surprised and scared facial expressions our actors make at the touch of a finger. This fun activity is appropriate for children as young as 18 months, but even adults have been caught poking through the dozens of short, beautifully photographed performances that our actors have to offer. The game is simple and engaging – a grid of nine faces randomly populates the screen, each with one of five emotions. When you touch a face, it expands to fill up the screen and “makes a face” while you hear the actor say the selected emotion, ie “happy!” “sa-a-a-d. . .” etc. Once the face has made its expression, the grid reappears with a whole new set of faces. Shake your iPhone, and the grid automatically “reshuffles.” This a fun, developmental way for young children to explore the words and looks of basic human emotions.
VolaFriends has been specifically designed to help children who have difficulty with emotional recognition by entertaining them as they practice.
- Client: Byte Dept Inc. (internal product)
- Scope: Branding, Design, Animation, Production
- Year: 2011-2013