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"While most children, like their parents, still encounter Sesame Street primarily on their TV, the 43-year-old nonprofit brand now attracts 16.5 million kids and parents across its digital platforms every quarter. 35% of children ages 0 through 8 now experience Sesame Street exclusively on non-TV platforms, and 85% of Sesame Street\u2019s digital users (whether they\u2019re tweens or adults) are former or lapsed viewers of the TV show.\nThe Sesame Street ebookstore contains 160 ebooks, many of which are also available as print books. The target audience is 2- to 6-year-olds. The company has also published 40 standalone ebooks and 25 paid and free iOS apps, 13 of which are based on existing print books. Those book-based apps account for 52% of unit sales for all Sesame Street iOS apps.\nAll of the apps are English-language, and they\u2019ve been purchased by customers in over 75 countries. This year, Sesame Workshop aims to translate its English apps and create localized content\u2014which can be challenging because Sesame Street characters are different around the world.\nSesame Workshop\u2019s Jennifer Perry shared the company\u2019s best practices for reaching preschoolers on digital platforms at Publishers Launch Conference's \u201CChildren\u2019s Publishing Goes Digital\u201D Monday. Here are a few highlights of what the company has learned from the research it conducts in partnership with the CUNY Center.\nUsability (Or, Design For Small Hands)\n\nEasy access to all key features at all times is essential. Individual pages, activities, parent tips, settings, etc. should never be more than one or two taps away, via an on-screen menu or index.\nMake it easy to turn off extras (like narration, parent tips and music) and skip introductions and instructions after the first use. \u201CParents don\u2019t want to sit through it again, and neither does a four-year-old,\u201D Perry said.\nResearch shows that preschoolers don\u2019t understand instructions if they\u2019re simply told, so audio prompts should be accompanied by visual enhancements (an arrow with a \u201Cturn the page\u201D prompt, for instance).\nPreschoolers have a hard time holding iPhones and iPads vertically, so design in a landscape mode. Position icons away from the bottom of the screen, where a preschooler is resting his or her wrists.\n\nComprehension: \u201CErrorless Learning\u201D\n\nProvide a demo, especially for parents, so they\u2019re aware of all the app\u2019s features as they\u2019re using it with their kid.\nRelate any game or enhancement directly to the storyline. Parents \u201Crespond negatively\u201D when enhancements are thrown in just as extras.\nRepeat hints, especially on story pages where a kid might be distracted by a storyline. Add a \u201Csubtle glow\u201D around a hot spot, for instance. \nThe app shouldn\u2019t linger on one activity indefinitely. Move to another \u201Cround\u201D after three to five gameplays. \u201CFive rounds of a game is the maximum that a child finds engaging,\u201D Perry said, \u201Cand definitely the max for parents.\u201D\nProvide audio or visual rewards for completion of activities.\n\nAdd-Ons for Parents:\n\nSesame has found that parents are open to cross-sells and promotions within an app, but don\u2019t want their child to run across them. Promotional stuff should go in the \u201CParents\u2019 Tips\u201D or \u201CAbout\u201D section of the app.\nParents like \u201Cextension activities\u201D\u2014related projects they can do with their kids outside the app.\n\nAnd a few ongoing questions\u2014Sesame is still researching the answers to these:\n\nWhich platforms will become the most commonly used for preschoolers?\nHow do parent-child interactions differ when reading a print book versus reading an ebook?\nWhich design features prompt more parent-child interaction?\nWhich designs hold children\u2019s attention best? Which designs and platforms best improve comprehension?\nChildren\u2019s Publishing Goes Digital is a special session at the Digital Book World conference, which is taking place in New York this week. See all our Digital Book World coverage here.\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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