Stories are being built in the child’s mind. But when you watch a child play, it suddenly all becomes clear. If you play them as an adult you usually don’t get it. These apps are great storytelling tools for kids.

Some of my favorite Toca Boca apps are the ones in the Toca Life series. We frequently used it at IDEO to put ourselves in the shoes of those we were designing for. Storytelling and role-play is a great way of building empathy and trust. Now while there is an underlying motive to my friend’s method, in giving up her own version of reality in order to play and join in on another’s, she learned to see things from the resident’s point of view. After a while she remarked how choppy it was at sea, and perhaps they should pull in to port - i.e. One night my friend decided to just play along. This resident would always think she was on a ship, going on a journey, and “bed” didn’t fit into the story. They had trouble getting a particular resident to go to bed. I remember a friend telling me a method she used when working at an elder-care home.

Toca boca life stories