Bibobox工作室的成员做梦都没有想到会接到苹果团队打来的电话。

 

　　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.”

 

　　但当他们在iPad上创造出包括长颈鹿、企鹅等在内的一系列能发出吱吱叫声的动物形象后，这一切都成真了。“我们尽量让这些动物形象栩栩如生，具有互动性，并易于操作。我们的团队十分注重微小细节。”大连民族大学教师兼Bibobox工作室的总设计师刘博说。

 

　　The group’s innovation and efforts captured the attention of Apple engineers.

 

　　该团队的创新与努力引来了苹果工程师们的关注。

 

　　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日于美国旧金山举行的“苹果全球开发者大会”（简称WWDC)上，Bibobox开发的30页交互书籍应用Little Star摘得学生类开发者大奖。

 

　　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的背后是一支由五名学生和两名老师组成的团队，他们来自大连民族大学，均是设计或计算机专业出身。

 

　　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.

 

　　这是自1996年苹果年度设计大奖开设以来，中国团队首次得奖。据苹果公司称,该奖项是颁发给那些符合苹果“打造设计感、创新性与艺术性并存的一流硬件”理念的开发者们。

 

　　“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.”

 

　　“我们的设计理念非常简单。我们希望孩子们能够打破常规寻求答案,”刘博解释道。“我们这款电子书便是为孩子提供创造性思维的方法和观点。”

 

　　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》讲述了五个好朋友一起踏上旅程去捉星星的故事。在几次失败的尝试后，他们终于发现了自身的不足和弱点，同时也意识到团队协作才是成功的关键。

 

　　“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.

 

　　“我们开发该应用程序的过程也证明了团队协作的重要性。” 22岁的王坤（音译）说。王坤是一名动画专业的大四学生，主要从事配色工作。

 

　　“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.

 

　　“对于设计师和工程师而言，共同工作，各抒己见，这点非常重要。”王坤表示，团队每周都会进行一次“头脑风暴”。最初，因为专业术语及想法各异，他们沟通起来十分困难。

 

　　“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.”

 

　　“后来我们就经常待在一起,”王坤回忆道。“最终，工程师们懂得了如何把想法转变为现实，而我们这些设计师也明白了该如何去回应他们的需求。”

 

　　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.

 

　　孩子们可以通过多种途径同故事进行互动，其中包括触摸屏幕发现不同的人物，使用加速器将星星摇出天空之外。

 

　　Besides the exquisite and flawless design, the language was important.

 

　　除了完美精致的设计，语言也十分重要。

 

　　Instead of Mandarin, Little Star was first launched in English. Then they added simplified Chinese and Cantonese versions.

 

　　《Little Star》初次发布时使用的是英语，而非中文。之后他们又增添了简体中文和粤语两个版本。

 

　　“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.”

 

　　“我们用全球性思维来考虑问题，”负责脚本翻译的玛吉?李 (音译)老师表示，“从一开始，我们电子书的目标人群就是全世界的儿童，并不仅仅是中国儿童。而孩子们的想法普遍相同，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.

 

　　王坤的同班同学，23岁的毕文婷（音译）称，他们几乎花了一年的时间来开发这本故事书。他们首先在大连各个小学做调研，看看孩子们是否喜欢他们的故事情节和人物设置。

 

　　Fluent English also helped the team promote itself at the conference. The representatives at the event exchanged ideas with fellow developers.

 

　　流利的英文也帮助该团队在此次大会上做自我推广。会议期间，与会代表与开发者相互交流了观点。

 

　　“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.”

 

　　“苹果公司看上去对我们的项目很感兴趣,” 玛吉?李说。“我们向他们阐述了我们未来的计划，以及中国的应用程序开发及教育市场的情况。”

 

　　Bibobox is working on a successor to Little Star, and a series of apps to teach Chinese characters’ etymology.

 

　　Bibobox正在开发《Little Star》后续产品，以及教授汉字词源的系列应用。

 

　　“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. ”

 

　　“作为学生，我们也从苹果网站的英文视频讲座中收获良多，”王坤说，“我已在设法同所有应用程序研发爱好者分享这些内容。”

 

　　Eric Jou contributed to the story

 

　　Eric Jou对本文亦有贡献。