Here’s the first instalment of feedback on the mask program. I offered to watch my kids use the program and see how they got on as well as how much they liked it. When they use the program again I’ll make another post with follow up feedback.
I’ll try to categorise the feedback as much as I can. I have 3 sons, aged 8, 7 and 5 – called H, G and P from now on. So far only H and G have tried out the program due to a shortage of computers but the 5 year old was keen to be involved and he pulled up a chair and watched his big brother H using the program.
General Feedback
They liked the program – “it’s cool” commented H. I asked the boys to try the program but didn’t force them. They were all keen to give it a go though.
I genuinely think they like the program a lot. I asked H how much he liked it and he said a lot and wants to have another go. I tried to put “a lot” into context so I asked him if he preferred it to Lego Star Wars. The answer was “no, of course not”.
Installing
For the initial test I installed the program for them but as I write H is downstairs installing it himself on a second computer as the 5 year old (P) wants to give it a go too. H is installing it from a CD I burned.
Update: H has now come back upstairs after installing it successfully on his own downstairs.
I noted when I downloaded that it came in a zip file. You have to unzip the file then run the installer. This does slightly complicate the process for a child compared with simply downloading a setup EXE. However, I can see advantages in a ZIP since it avoids the “Do you trust this publisher warning” you get when installing straight after downloading an EXE.
Getting Going
H had little problem getting going with the program. He ran through the tutorial then started putting together a mask. I should say though that H has a reading age of 12 (I’m not boasting!) and reads up to 3 hours a day – he finished all the Harry Potter books when he was 7.
G was different. He’s more of an average reader I’d say. He struggled a bit and needed help to get past some of the initial dialogs. He ended up clicking on a Buy button and opening a browser. I’d say the getting going bit for G was a bit too difficult. I had to help him get as far as clicking the New button and then adding a head shape.
Neither H nor G liked the popup dialogs asking them to purchase. It struck me that if kids were meant to use the program they shouldn’t be nagged to buy. The nag screens simply make the program more difficult for kids. You could consider a different tempt-to-purchase scheme, e.g. allowing full access initially then locking the user out after 3 or 4 runs. Maybe printing could be disallowed? Some more thought may be needed in this area.
General Quality
There weren’t any bugs encountered. The whole program ran smoothly and, as written above, the kids thought the program looked cool and was nicely styled.
G has a particular love of cuddly animals, tigers especially, so he immediately tried to make a tiger mask. He noticed that there wasn’t a tiger nose, i.e. there was tiger head and mouth I think but he had to choose a cat nose although he started looking for a tiger nose.
When the mask was printed, it wasn’t centred in the page. I’m not sure if this is a problem really but I was sort of expecting it to be centred so that there was more flexibility in making holes for string to hold the mask in place.
Miscellaneous
H was pleased to find he could do some freehand drawing. He’s always liked opening up MS Paint and doodling. He liked that he could do this with the K program.
Finishing the Job
After printing I wondered what to do next to make the printout into a mask. I wasn’t being intentionally thick here, I wanted to see if the kids pushed me to finish the process of making masks and what the next steps would be. None of the kids actually wanted to wear the mask, they simply liked the look of the printouts.
It occurred to me at this point that neither the program nor your website explains to people (as far as I can gather) how to finish the job and make a mask. G thought he might finish the job of colouring in his tiger mask with felt tip pens. If the mask was printed on normal A4 paper I don’t think it would really work too well as it would rip too easily. Perhaps people should be told to get cardboard (like an old Rice Krispies box), some scissors and some string or elastic to finish making the mask. I know my kids like doing arts and crafts type of stuff and if they been prompted into getting these items I’m sure they’d have nagged me to go and get them. It might have made using the program more of an activity than just trying out a drawing program if you see what I mean. If the kids got a couple of hours fun out of it and ended up with some masks to wear they could be more tempted to want to use the program again.
Following On
We did the initial test this morning then we went out shopping. The 5 year old nagged me when we came home to set up their computer in the toyroom so he could try the program out. I guess this is good evidence that he liked the look of it enough to remember he wanted a go a few hours later.
In a few days time, maybe next weekend, I’ll ask the kids if they’ve used the program again on the computer in the toyroom.
Suggestions
There are some points/ suggestions made above. The suggestions here are simply a few more ideas I had while watching them use the program.
It might be an idea to bundle more ready-made masks with the program. If people are looking to buy masks, not make masks from scratch, a library of ready-made masks might be a good selling point. I know you have mask packs which people can buy or get as a bonus if they do purchase. If you aren’t selling copies then you might just add the mask packs into the main package to make it more attractive.
Find an alternative method of encouraging people to buy – the buy now nag dialogs are simply annoying to a child using the program. Be harsh! Your biggest friend in making a sale is likely to be a nagging child who can’t access the program and see his masks any more.
This comment is purely my personal preference for designing user interfaces – when you click the heads/ eyes/ ears etc. buttons you get a popup dialog showing you the available selections. Could you simply have a panel immediately to the right of the buttons that show the available selections and avoid the popup? If the selections were in a panel then clicking a selection in the panel could immediately update the mask. This would mean there were fewer buttons to click to add something to the mask. It would also have the advantage that when the program starts you could immediately list the available head shapes giving kids more targets to click on to get going.
All-in-all it’s a nice program!
{ 9 } Comments
Wow what great feedback thanks.
Pleased you had no bugs / crashes and your kids enjoyed it.
I know the program is simplified and looks like its aimed at kids, but I’m never sure if kids would download / use it or whether it would be a parent and child thing. I guess I need to cater for both
scenarios.
I’ll take the purchase dialogs out. Although I’m not sure what else to do instead.
The program is limited to 5 prints and I think it does say 5… 4… etc. I’ll have to check this, its obviously not obvious.
You’ve hit the nail on the head, its a kind of one use program for some people and the 30 day trial is perhaps not working.
I guess I can change both the print and the 30 days, but again I’m not sure how.
In fact I don’t think it does time out after 30 days.
I’ll have to look into the tiger nose…
Interesting point about what they do after they print. I did have someone ring me about 6 months ago, asking if I sold a kit for making the mask.
What do you think, some sort of mini help system aimed at kids, with buttons… ? hmmm
Yeah, I was wondering the same thing about a library masks idea, see other post.
Yep nagging is an issue I need to look at, hmmm.
At this stage I’d like to make as few changes as possible, not sure how can easily add a panel to the main screen.
Thanks so much for this!!
That’s fine. The kids liked the program.
I’ve had a few random thoughts on possibilities for the
sales strategy while I was on my exercise bike …
In some ways you are in a good position now. You don’t
have many sales so you have the freedom to try out
different ways of selling without risking a significant loss
of earnings.
How about “renting” the program to the user. Say
charging $3 for one month’s use after which it switches
back into trial mode. In trial mode be vicious. Let the
kids see lots of nice masks (from your mask packs) and
instructions on how to make them but don’t let them print
anything at all – or just one at a push. The idea would be
that most people would pay $3 for a beefburger so
shouldn’t quibble at paying this for using the program. If
they get bored of using the program within the month
then they haven’t lost out. A few months down the road,
if it’s raining outside and the kids want to make some
masks in the dry and warm, they can rent another month
for another $3.
I think your right that I different approach.
Thats an interesting idea, its different and it scares me a little. Maybe it would work. To me the idea of renting software is an unknown.
Perhaps this is too radical ?
The problem which I realised when I tried to restrict printing, was that people can still do a screen dump and print.
I know that the low price aka loose change idea, does work on eBay, but its not a big money earner.
Thanks so much for your input on this
Yes, I did think of the Alt-PrtScreen route but I wouldn’t
worry about too many people knowing that this is even
possible.
It would be a radical approach but you don’t have much
to lose so you can experiment to see if different
approaches work. Try one approach for a few weeks. If
it doesn’t work, try another. Pin-money sales won’t earn
big money for sure but you aren’t earning big money
now. Personally, I’d be more comfortable with a steady
trickle of low income than small numbers of (still not big)
payments spaced a few weeks apart.
You’ve got the opportunity of being radical. You don’t
have take my idea. Think of others. My kids liked the
program. I liked the program. All you have to do is find a
way of selling it.
Remember we discussed (on this blog I think) an enquiry
you had from a playgroup leader who wanted to use the
program again. She’d used it previously to create masks
under the trial but now months later she wanted to use it
again and wanted the trial extended. I think at the time I
said forget it, if she liked the program so much she
should buy it. The renting/ buy-one-months use would fit
her perfectly. For $3 or so she could use it with her
playgroup at a very low cost printing out 15 or 20 masks.
6 months later or with a new year’s intake of kids, she
could pay another $3 and so on.
I’m not saying this is a big money earner but a one-
month-use-for-pin-money model might cater for the use
once or twice throw away problem that is likely to be
your current barrier to sales.
I think Mike’s idea about renting the software for a month at a time is good.
And you have nothing to loose I think people would easily spend $3 a month for when they need to use it and it is small change to most.
Although it’s small change for you it all soon adds up compared to now and again big payments.
I was sat downstairs grumbling to myself about the idea of such a low rental price of £3 then I just seen its $3
However, what about offer people two different methods, something similar to what I have at the moment and the rental idea.
That way they have the choice to buy the program out right.
I’m also not sold on Mikes idea about including all my mask packs.
The idea of getting the jungle pack free after the first ten days has always seemed a good idea to me.
I don’t think I’d want to give away this pack for the rental method though, I suppose this still give the full price method a bigger carrot.
?
I would focus as selling the product as a complete one
with as many packs as possible including the add-ons
free, I think the more you can make this for everyone
the better it will be, as there is nothing worst than an
upset kid who wants a particular mask which is $xx
more money.
Also how do you know the standard masks cater for all
kids they may just be your likes and not every ones.
I would focus on the app it self and include all the extra
packs instead of charging for them.
How many people this year purchased an add-on pack?
You could sell the complete app inc extra packs as a one
of license, and also alongside that offer a rental version.
Now lets say you sell 10 x $15 a license a year $150
But then with your new monthly license you was able to
sell 20 x $3 a month $60 (per year that is $720).
If you could make it subscription based i.e. pay pal
subscriptions you could leverage the fact that people
sometimes forget to cancel licenses, also some people
will continue to pay the monthly subscription.
I for one don´t utilise my XBOX Live account a lot and
that is £4.99 per month and there was even a period last
year where I never used it for 4 months, however I kept
the subscription running
Dipsy. Remember no-one can tell you what to do. I only
made some suggestions to give you some more ideas.
$3 is only a suggestion. $5 is another suggestion or
$4.50.
As it stands, if you don’t sell any copies, the mask packs
may as well not exist. So the options are between trying
to sell for potentially smaller amounts of money or
throwing away the work put into the packs.
I think trying 2 methods of selling – monthly or lifetime is
good. You don’t have to bundle all the packs but could
keep some as a benefit for a lifetime purchase.
You’ve not much to lose so try stuff out. If it doesn’t
work, try something else.
I’ve emailed ShareIT, they do subscription payments acceptance, but I want to find out how that works before I go any further.
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