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Amulets

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At Pocket Tales, we love searching for and discovering the best literature for kids and young adults. We also like to take some innovative approaches to introducing the literature we find to kids. One approach we use is in how we design our badges (which we call amulets) that kids can win on Pocket Tales. Here are some things we evaluate when designing a new amulet.

1) Give the Amulet a Backstory

Giving your amulet a backstory creates a way for users to connect with the amulet and your application on a much deeper level than just winning a generic graphic. The amulet we profiled in this post (“Toad Hall”) is the home of the main character Toad from the book Wind in the Willows. It is the final in a series of 4 amulets kids can win on Pocket Tales for reading books. Toad is notorious for owning material items, tiring of each and moving from one possession to the next. As the story progresses, he loses his most prized possession, Toad Hall, to intruders. It isn’t until his friends help him regain control of Toad Hall that he realizes his greatest possessions aren’t material things, but rather the camaraderie he shares with his friends. This is the last amulet to win in the series and correlates with the final possession Toad has when he comes to this realization.

2) Create A Theme or Series

The other amulets in the series are items Toad possesses - a boat, gypsy caravan and luxury car. By using a theme, we created a way to help users learn more about the book each time they unlock a new amulet. We think Wind in the Willows is a great book, and theming the amulets around the book creates a unique way for us to introduce great literature to kids who would not have read this book otherwise.

3) Create a Desire for Them

Rather than creating a flat, 2D, uninspired design like many other web applications, we created a richer visual design users would value more. The amulets are fairly difficult to unlock on Pocket Tales, thus winning them becomes a more substantial feat for our users. Toad Hall, in particular, is unlocked on Pocket Tales only after the user has read 50 books - a highly sought after achievement for our users. 

Below you can see the steps our designer, Amma, took to make Toad Hall a reality.

Concept Sketch

Line Work and Color

Shadows and Depth

Textures

Framing

Final Design

Pocket Tales is looking for teachers, parents or anyone passionate about children’s literature to help us with an exciting new project. 

We recently launched the first version of Pocket Tales, and to keep up with our users’ insatiable demand to test their knowledge on the books they’ve read, we’re looking for people to join our quiz creation team!

Here’s what you’ll do:

• Choose children’s books from the extensive list of popular titles we’ve hand-picked, as well as books being requested daily by our current users (we have nearly 700 titles to choose from).
• Create easy, short 4 question multiple-choice quizzes.
• Get cash! We’ll pay you for quizzes you create so you can buy more books for your kids, do a mid-summer shopping spree, or even buy classroom supplies for the upcoming school year.

It’s that easy!

Not that you need more incentives, but here are some of the other benefits of participating:

• You get to read children’s books! What could be better than spending a few summer afternoons reading your favorite books from when you were younger?
• You get to help tons of kids find, new, great books to read.
• You’ll help a brand new startup that’s actually trying to make an IMPACT on the world. Kids who excel at reading tend to do better in school and subsequently life.
• Pocket Tales is in private alpha, so you’ll also get a sneak peak at the platform we’ve built. We’ll also come to you first for suggestions to improve the site for your kids or students.
• And did we mention, you’ll earn money for this? I know, it’s too good to be true… but it is!

See the document below for more of the finer details.

If you’re interested, or know someone who might be, please have them send an email to yaw [at] pockettales [dot] com for more details.

Quiz Creation Overview

Pocket Tales is an online social reading game that turns reading books into a game for 9 -13 year old kids. In other words, Pocket Tales is to reading books what fantasy football is to watching football games and Foursquare is to going places.  We are funded by NYC-based Startl and Philadelphia-based Dreamit Ventures.

We currently have a workable product and are in a closed-alpha stage.

Role
We’re looking for someone who can fully own the frontend design and development of Pocket Tales’ web application. This person will:

1. Have a deep knowledge of user interface and user experience best practices
2. Be able to convert that knowledge into beautiful photoshop mockups that show a creative and artistic flair in addition to great usability
3. Have the ability to rapidly convert those designs into standards-compliant HTML/CSS/Javascript etc.

The ideal candidate will also have experience designing game mechanics for web applications.

We know the above is a description of a very rare, and specific type of person, but if you think you could knock 1 or 2 of the above responsibilities out of the park and are passionate about our product, we’re interested in talking.

Compensation
We are offering salary plus equity compensation. We favor candidates who are interested in more than just a job (that means equity is appealing to you).

To Apply
Send an email to joinus@pockettales.com with instructions on how to view some of your work and a note on why you’re interested in exploring a role at Pocket Tales.

(Please, no design firms, freelancers, or consultants need apply. Individuals seeking full-time positions only.)

Pocket Tales is an online social reading game that turns reading books into a game for 9-13 year old kids. In other words, Pocket Tales is to reading books what fantasy football is to watching football games and Foursquare is to going places.  We are funded by NYC-based Startl and Philadelphia-based Dreamit Ventures.

We currently have a workable product and are in a private-alpha stage.

Role
We’re looking for someone who is an experienced Ruby on Rails developer and expert project manager to help us enhance our current alpha product. (NOTE: We are now also considering experienced backend developers willing to learn Rails)

The ideal candiate will:

• Have the ability to lead the backend development of the Pocket Tales web application including significant experience programming in Ruby on Rails or a willingness to learn Rails
• Be able to contribute to frontend development including HTML/CSS/Javascript etc. as needed
• Provide informed opinions to the discussion of all aspects of the business

Compensation

We are offering salary plus equity compensation. We favor candidates who are interested in more than just a job (that means equity is appealing to you).

To Apply
Send an email to joinus@pockettales.com with instructions on how to view some of your work and a note on why you’re interested in exploring a role at Pocket Tales.

This past weekend, Pocket Tales took a trip to Texas for the South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival. It was a great experience for us to pitch our concept to the scrutiny of some of the most innovative and influential minds in technology today. 

Our first 2 minute pitch went over really well. The judges for our group had built a notorious reputation for ruthlessly tearing apart the presenters. But, to our surprise, they seemed to really enjoy our idea, to the point that they ran out of questions to pick us apart before the Q&A session was up. We were named 1 of 3 finalists from the original 8 to continue to the final round of the competition, where we gave a 5 minute pitch. 

Although we ended up losing the final round to ShopSavvy, I think we were definitely a crowd favorite and had great reception from attendees and fans. Here’s what people were saying about Pocket Tales at the event:

“I think interactive reading has a huge future which puts Pocket Tales in a great position to bring in a young fanbase.” - Elance Blog

With the hoopla of SXSW over, we’re energized and ecstatic to launch our alpha product and get it in the hands of kids before the month is over. Thanks to all of our friends, family and fans for supporting us at the conference and we look forward to sharing Pocket Tales with you soon!