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Message tiptoi Ravensburger, a European market leader in games and children’s books, sells popular leisure products worldwide. Based in southern Germany, the family-owned business takes pride in making fun, educational products that feature excellent craftsmanship and superior quality. In 2009, Ravensburger sought to create a new product for children that combined interactive digital technology with the company’s signature products. It asked IDEO to help design the product, develop the brand, suggest market positioning, coin a slogan, and craft a communication strategy. At the outset of the project, the design team’s challenge was to translate Ravensburger’s core values — and the analog nature of its games — into an engaging digital media offering that would overcome parents’ reluctance to let their young kids use technology. To determine the best approach, we spent considerable time observing children at home and watching youngsters and their parents play games. What we learned led to the development of Ravenburger’s tiptoi. tiptoi is a digital audio learning system for children ages 4 and up. Kids use a brightly colored electronic stylus to touch pages or parts of similarly branded books, games, and puzzles. The intelligent pen “reads out” a story, explains the context, asks questions, comments on the right answer, formulates tasks, or inspires children to play on. Children get to know their environments better, and entertaining games and exercises reinforce their newly acquired knowledge. tiptoi was unveiled in February 2010, at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, where the product won the Toy Award in the Knowledge and Learning category. Its consumer market launch followed in September 2010. And in October 2010 it won the Special GIGA Maus Award at the Frankfurt Bookfair. http://www.ideo.com/work/tiptoi