Developers are creating apps all across the world that dismantle barriers related to gender, race, socioeconomic status, language, and physical ability.
Apple chatted with former Entrepreneur Camp participants whose apps are revolutionizing the fields of education, fitness, and mental health in honor of the camp’s fifth anniversary. The three women have all taken part in the immersive tech lab, which allows developers from underrepresented groups to get one-on-one coaching from Apple experts, engineers, and leaders to advance their products. Apple’s philosophy that “apps for everyone, by everyone” is emphasized at Entrepreneur Camp.
Edna Martinson, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based 2023 Entrepreneur Camp alum, founded Boddle Learning in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when educators and kids were getting used to the abrupt shift to home-based instruction. By adapting information to their learning levels through gameplay and machine learning, the educational software for kids fills in knowledge gaps and increases their self-assurance in the classroom.
Running and gaming are two of 2022 Entrepreneur Camp alum Jenny Xu’s longtime passions, which she combined into Run Legends after graduating from MIT. In order to encourage players of all fitness levels to link up with friends to battle and overcome real-life fears, the immersive multiplayer game was created to make walking and running more enjoyable.
And Jo Aggarwal, a 2019 Entrepreneur Camp alum, is the creator and CEO of Wysa, an emotionally intelligent chatbot that enables users to discuss challenging feelings and ideas in private, at any time. Wysa is created by therapists in collaboration with AI designers. The app, which is based in Bengaluru and Boston, has taught millions of users how to be happier in 95 different nations.
In the sections that follow, Martinson, Xu, and Aggarwal discuss how they became app developers, how they added personalization to make their apps more user-friendly, important lessons they learned at Entrepreneur Camp, and how they used technology to create creative solutions to everyday issues.
Giving Women a Voice in App Development
Jenny Xu (JX): In the beginning, I thought I was the only one in the gaming industry doing what I was doing. I believe that women are the primary audience for the story-based interactive fiction genre, which I played a lot as a child. These are creative games that teach you valuable lessons about life. Despite being a battle game, Run Legends doesn’t make players feel particularly aggressive; instead, it gives them a sense of empowerment. I strive to give back and demonstrate that it’s possible to create games that are more than simply shooters—games that genuinely improve the world—now that I’ve raised some money and shipped some titles.
Edna Martinson (EM): Since the majority of the primary school teachers we work with are female, my viewpoint as a woman in this field has greatly influenced our team and how we interact with the community. We’ve had a great time exposing kids to game design and holding virtual career days on Zoom, where we show them how we built Boddle. Seeing the delight on little girls’ cheeks when they learn that a woman cofounded Boddle is incredibly fulfilling. It demonstrates to them their potential as IT leaders.
Dismantling Barriers with Customization
Jo Aggarwal (JA): Our goal is to address mental health issues worldwide and provide a secure environment for individuals to process their feelings and develop resilience, regardless of stigma, gender, race, or diagnosis. Since language barriers can also exist, we are launching Wysa in Spanish to provide marginalized communities with more fair access to our service.
EM: At Boddle, we recognize that every child learns differently and at their own speed. For this reason, we use machine learning to detect learning gaps in children’s content and adapt it to their level through engaging and dynamic games. We also give instructors access to exams from kindergarten through sixth grade, math and English videos, and a variety of grading and reporting tools so they can support their kids.
JX: We saw that in previous fitness endeavors, those who were fitter or quicker were frequently rewarded, intimidating others in the process. Run Legends detects player speed and modifies gameplay by utilizing accelerometer, core location, and core motion data on the Apple platform. It is therefore identical whether you choose to play at a 20-minute strolling rate or an 8-minute running pace. Actually, there’s no benefit to playing our game more slowly or more quickly. Many walkers who play the game report that it has helped them progress from walking to a jog by gradually increasing their pace.
Obtaining Guidance and Assistance
JA: I made connections with a lot of like-minded entrepreneurs at Entrepreneur Camp, which was incredible. I do maintain contact with a few of the cohort members who work in related sectors. It was like a dream come true to study Apple design concepts in such an exquisitely designed campus. We are currently among the top-ranked applications in our category thanks to design sessions we held with members of the Apple team who gave us advice on how to position Wysa.
JX: Run Legends had just launched when we went to Entrepreneur Camp. Even the general design of the game was unknown to us. We had the chance to speak with the design team, who could undertake in-depth analyses of our app and know what was going on in the App Store. During our onboarding process, for instance, our representative asked us, “What happens if a player isn’t ready to run or go outside? If you didn’t offer a different experience that could be played inside, you would lose a lot of people. In response to that input, we completely redesigned our onboarding process. Following launch, we discovered that nearly 50% of all players had taken advantage of the alternate experience.
Creating Immersion-Level Experiences
EM: Boddle isn’t only an English or math game. We are developing various gaming experiences within a learning metaverse. Kids can get right into a basketball game if they enjoy basketball. If they have pets, they should play our game where you have to battle them. The best thing is that kids may choose the games they wish to play and that they can take their education with them into Boddle’s world. They choose what they want to accomplish and learn as they go, taking control of their own educational journey.
JX: We used Spatial Audio in Run Legends to make it seem as though the combat is genuinely taking place all around you as you turn your head. The monster may be growling at you if you turn to the left, while your allies may be encouraging you if you turn to the right. As you race and charge your assault, you can feel the haptics and experience the battle as if it’s occurring in real time. Many exercise longer and harder when they experience that emotion. Because of the interactive audio experience, players often tell us they’ve completed the fastest walks or runs of their lives while using it.
JA: The way we refined the product has been what makes Wysa genuinely distinctive. We didn’t start with a chatbot and convert it from a clinical workbook. After implementing evidence-based strategies that were effective, we asked users what they needed and which ones didn’t work for them. Then, in collaboration with physicians, we developed models that assisted users in attempting self-help. This led to the creation of a hitherto unattainable power balance between patients and physicians, made feasible by AI and analytics.
Coming Up with Creative Solutions for Issues in the Real World
JA: Our goal was to make mental health services freely accessible so that anyone could use them whenever they needed to, even at three in the morning. People are three times more likely to open up to AI than to a human therapist, according to research. This offers a chance to provide psychological safety, but it also needs to be implemented with a privacy-first design and substantiated, quantifiable results. We were able to demonstrate the effects on both IT professionals and blue collar workers, as well as on older persons with chronic pain.
JX: The story of Run Legends revolves around you using your in-game battles to overcome anxieties from the real world. Thus, you’re not up against a generic foe or a minion: You’re up against a really competitive Chad who constantly tries to outdo you, or your judgmental grandmother who constantly tells you you’re not good enough. Our gamers have reported that it’s a cathartic experience. In actuality, they are recovering from the conflicts and the story of triumphing over adversity.
