帮我倒放小星星 科技资讯:"小星星"吃到"大苹果"

科技资讯:"小星星"吃到"大苹果"  

Members of Bibobox Studio didn't expect a call from the Apple team.
But that's what happened after they created a series of squeaky animals including a penguin and giraffe for the iPad. "We tried to make the characters as lifelike
interactive and user-friendly as possible
" said Liu Bo
a teacher from Dalian Nationalities University
and the chief director of Bibobox. "Our team pays close attention to the tiniest details."
The group's innovation and efforts captured the attention of Apple engineers.
该团队的创新与努力引来了苹果工程师们的关注。
Bibobox's 30-page interactive storybook Little Star won the student developer award at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)
held June 11-15 in San Francisco
US.
The team behind Little Star is made up of five students and o teachers from Liu's university. They are all design or puter engineering majors.
It's the first time that a Chinese team has won a prize at the annual Apple Design Awards
since the awards began in 1996. According to Apple
the award is given to developers who match its own philosophy of good design
innovation and state-of-the-art hardware.
"Our design philosophy is very simple. We want children to think outside the box to reach an answer
" Liu explained. "The point of our book is to provide children with methods and ideas for them to think creatively by themselves."
Little Star features a story of five friends on their journey to catch stars. After several failed attempts
they discover their shortings and weaknesses
and realize that the power of teamwork is the key to success.
"In our process of creating the app
teamwork also proved to be crucial
" said Wang Kun
22
a senior animation major who did the coloring.
"It's important for designers and engineers to work together and get their ideas across." Wang said the team had a brainstorming session every week. At first
it was hard to municate because they had different jargon and ideas.
"We then spent time together
" Wang recalled. "As a result
engineers knew how to put our ideas into reality
and we designers understood how to respond to their needs."
The children are able to interact with the app in many ways
including touching to reveal different characters as well as using an accelerometer to shake the stars out of the sky.
Besides the exquisite and flawless design
the language was important.
Instead of Mandarin
Little Star was first launched in English. Then they added simplified Chinese and Cantonese versions.
"We were thinking with a global mindset
" said Maggie Li
a tutor who was in charge of translating the script. "From the outset our book was aimed at children around the world
not just those in China. Kids think the same universally."
Bi Wenting
23
a classmate of Wang
said they spent almost a year creating the storybook. They did research at primary schools in Dalian
to find out if children liked their plotlines and characters.
Fluent English also helped the team promote itself at the conference. The representatives at the event exchanged ideas with fellow developers.
"Apple looked interested in our project
" said Li. "We told them about our future plans
as well as Chinese app-developing and education-related markets."
Bibobox is working on a successor to Little Star
and a series of apps to teach Chinese characters' etymology.
"We students also learnt a lot from sessions with videos available in English on Apple's website
" said Wang. "And I've tried to share them with everyone interested in app developing. "
Eric Jou contributed to the story