科技資訊:"小星星"吃到"大蘋果"
Members of Bibobox Studio didn't expect a call from the Apple team.
Bibobox工作室的成員做夢都沒有想到會接到蘋果團隊打來的電話。But that's what happened after they created a series of squeaky animals including a penguin and giraffe for the iPad. "We tried to make the characters as lifelike, interactive and user-friendly as possible," said Liu Bo, a teacher from Dalian Nationalities University, and the chief director of Bibobox. "Our team pays close attention to the tiniest details."
但當他們在iPad上創造出包括長頸鹿、企鵝等在內的一系列能發出吱吱叫聲的動物形象後，這一切都成真了。"我們儘量讓這些動物形象栩栩如生，具有互動性，並易於操作。我們的團隊十分注重微小細節。"大連民族大學教師兼Bibobox工作室的總設計師劉博說。The group's innovation and efforts captured the attention of Apple engineers.
該團隊的創新與努力引來了蘋果工程師們的關注。
Bibobox's 30-page interactive storybook Little Star won the student developer award at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), held June 11-15 in San Francisco, US.
6月11-15日於美國舊金山舉行的"蘋果全球開發者大會"（簡稱WWDC)上，Bibobox開發的30頁交互書籍應用Little Star摘得學生類開發者大獎。The team behind Little Star is made up of five students and two teachers from Liu's university. They are all design or computer engineering majors.
Little Star的背後是一支由五名學生和兩名老師組成的團隊，他們來自大連民族大學，均是設計或計算機專業出身。It's the first time that a Chinese team has won a prize at the annual Apple Design Awards, since the awards began in 1996. According to Apple, the award is given to developers who match its own philosophy of good design, innovation and state-of-the-art hardware.
這是自1996年蘋果年度設計大獎開設以來，中國團隊首次得獎。據蘋果公司稱,該獎項是頒發給那些符合蘋果"打造設計感、創新性與藝術性並存的一流硬件"理念的開發者們。"Our design philosophy is very simple. We want children to think outside the box to reach an answer," Liu explained. "The point of our book is to provide children with methods and ideas for them to think creatively by themselves."
"我們的設計理念非常簡單。我們希望孩子們能夠打破常規尋求答案,"劉博解釋道。"我們這款電子書便是爲孩子提供創造性思維的方法和觀點。"Little Star features a story of five friends on their journey to catch stars. After several failed attempts, they discover their shortcomings and weaknesses, and realize that the power of teamwork is the key to success.
《Little Star》講述了五個好朋友一起踏上旅程去捉星星的故事。在幾次失敗的嘗試後，他們終於發現了自身的不足和弱點，同時也意識到團隊協作纔是成功的關鍵。"In our process of creating the app, teamwork also proved to be crucial," said Wang Kun, 22, a senior animation major who did the coloring.
"我們開發該應用程序的過程也證明了團隊協作的重要性。" 22歲的王坤（音譯）說。王坤是一名動畫專業的大四學生，主要從事配色工作。"It's important for designers and engineers to work together and get their ideas across." Wang said the team had a brainstorming session every week. At first, it was hard to communicate because they had different jargon and ideas.
"對於設計師和工程師而言，共同工作，各抒己見，這點非常重要。"王坤錶示，團隊每週都會進行一次"頭腦風暴"。最初，因爲專業術語及想法各異，他們溝通起來十分困難。"We then spent time together," Wang recalled. "As a result, engineers knew how to put our ideas into reality, and we designers understood how to respond to their needs."
"後來我們就經常待在一起,"王坤回憶道。"最終，工程師們懂得了如何把想法轉變爲現實，而我們這些設計師也明白了該如何去迴應他們的需求。"The children are able to interact with the app in many ways, including touching to reveal different characters as well as using an accelerometer to shake the stars out of the sky.
孩子們可以通過多種途徑同故事進行互動，其中包括觸摸屏幕發現不同的人物，使用加速器將星星搖出天空之外。Besides the exquisite and flawless design, the language was important.
除了完美精緻的設計，語言也十分重要。Instead of Mandarin, Little Star was first launched in English. Then they added simplified Chinese and Cantonese versions.
《Little Star》初次發佈時使用的是英語，而非中文。之後他們又增添了簡體中文和粵語兩個版本。"We were thinking with a global mindset," said Maggie Li, a tutor who was in charge of translating the script. "From the outset our book was aimed at children around the world, not just those in China. Kids think the same universally."
"我們用全球性思維來考慮問題，"負責腳本翻譯的瑪吉•李 (音譯)老師表示，"從一開始，我們電子書的目標人羣就是全世界的兒童，並不僅僅是中國兒童。而孩子們的想法普遍相同，不分地域。"Bi Wenting, 23, a classmate of Wang, said they spent almost a year creating the storybook. They did research at primary schools in Dalian, to find out if children liked their plotlines and characters.
王坤的同班同學，23歲的畢文婷（音譯）稱，他們幾乎花了一年的時間來開發這本故事書。他們首先在大連各個小學做調研，看看孩子們是否喜歡他們的故事情節和人物設置。Fluent English also helped the team promote itself at the conference. The representatives at the event exchanged ideas with fellow developers.
流利的英文也幫助該團隊在此次大會上做自我推廣。會議期間，與會代表與開發者相互交流了觀點。"Apple looked interested in our project," said Li. "We told them about our future plans, as well as Chinese app-developing and education-related markets."
"蘋果公司看上去對我們的項目很感興趣," 瑪吉•李說。"我們向他們闡述了我們未來的計劃，以及中國的應用程序開發及教育市場的情況。"Bibobox is working on a successor to Little Star, and a series of apps to teach Chinese characters' etymology.
Bibobox正在開發《Little Star》後續產品，以及教授漢字詞源的系列應用。"We students also learnt a lot from sessions with videos available in English on Apple's website," said Wang. "And I've tried to share them with everyone interested in app developing. "
"作爲學生，我們也從蘋果網站的英文視頻講座中收穫良多，"王坤說，"我已在設法同所有應用程序研發愛好者分享這些內容。"Eric Jou contributed to the story
Eric Jou對本文亦有貢獻。
