BBC launches Get Creative app for Cbeebies

UK public broadcaster the BBC has launched a new Get Creative app for its Cbeebies kids channel. The new app will sit alongside the channel’s existing two apps, Playtime Island and Storytime.

In a blog posting, Natalie Ratcliff, senior product manager, children’s D&E at the BBC, said that the app had been developed primarily to serve the Cbeebies three-to-five year-old audience, but that the product design had been worked carefully to make all experiences “appealing for a broader age range of children and, importantly, for all abilities”.

Ratcliff said that the Get Creative app features a “crazy, messy and magical 3D factory” and is based on brand-led navigation, focusing on characters such as Hey Duggee, Go Jeters and Bitz and Bob.

At launch, the app features four creativity experiences covering magic painting, toy making, sound drawing and storytelling. Magic Paint is a drawing tool where kids can use different paint, tapes, stickers and stencils and watch their creations come to life. Terrific Toys enables kids to create their own mix and match toys and play with them in a dedicated playground area. Sound Doodles offers kids the opportunity to make music from their doodles, while Play Puppets enables kids to direct their own episodes of CBeebies shows by animating puppets, props and watching their performances.

The app features a gallery underneath the factory floor to showcase all creations in one place, allowing children to continue play at a touch of a button, and a “simple, app-wide reward system” to allow them to feel a sense of achievement.

“The launch version of Get Creative is just the start, and we have a packed product roadmap with regular additions coming in following months. With Christmas creative challenges, additional creative experiences and scaling of the number of our most well loved CBeebies characters, there will be many reasons for children to want to return regularly to the app to Get Creative,” said Ratcliff.