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Originality and creativity of the idea

The Tutas lietas app offers a new approach to activating Latvian children's content, combining rich video and audio content with educational games in a single safe environment that is also accessible offline. It is the first app of its kind for pre-school-age children in Latvia.
Since Ausma Media is also extensively adapting the Tutas lietas content for international markets, a significant and innovative factor is the ability to scale the platform internationally, supporting and growing Ausma Media's export capacity and the company's overall sustainability.

Definition of the problem and the relevance of the applied solutions

Research shows that children begin consuming audiovisual content as early as 10–12 months of age. At present, parents mostly use YouTube, but for children this is an unsafe environment in which it is easy to come across unwanted and even harmful content. The Tutas lietas app offers a safe, fully controlled environment with screen-time control and a positive first experience of media use.
In addition, Ausma Media regularly receives requests from parents to provide the ability to download content for use while travelling or without internet, so that children have access only to age-appropriate content, preventing them from wandering off into material outside their age group. This is particularly important for families with small children aged 1 to 3. No other Latvian-language provider currently offers such a solution, making the app a timely and valuable tool for many families. It also reduces the need to search for illegal or 'pirate' solutions, as all functionality is also available offline.

Co-creation, stakeholder involvement and cooperation during the realisation process

During the development process, the actual target audience was continuously involved in testing sessions. Children tested the comprehensibility, intuitiveness and mechanics of the interface and games, and their feedback was systematically collected and passed on to the team. Based on the testing results, specific improvements were made to the interface and functionality of the games.
The project rests on interdisciplinary cooperation between Ausma Media, Cube and individually invited independent experts — the team brought together specialists in design, development, content and pedagogy. The game mechanics were developed in connection with already created and recognisable content, integrating educational approaches including Montessori principles, with each mechanic put into practice and tested with real users.

Functionality and technological solutions

The app is available on iOS and Android devices, on phones and tablets.
Videos and audio can be downloaded for offline use.
Range of games: a memory training game, a logic game (the train track), a basic mathematics game, reading and writing games (learning written letters, syllabification, spelling words) and a music-making game.
Technological solutions include 3D character animation (partly developed using AI tools), a parents' section with screen-time limiting, and an achievements system (stars and virtual stickers).
Each game is built on a specific educational mechanic, ensuring real skill development and motivation to improve performance.

Aesthetics and other experiential dimensions

As the target audience is children who cannot yet read, visual language and audio messages are the app's principal means of communication. The interface has been built almost without written text — only with visual and iconic elements and familiar cues and sounds — so that the child feels at home in it, exploring and acting intuitively and with curiosity. The characters — the foxes, the badger, the little robot, the sharp note and others — are already well known and loved by children. In the app, they are rendered in 3D style with dynamic animation, deepening characters that are already familiar.
Overall, the app conveys the feel of a safe, playful and familiar environment that resonates deeply with the target audience.

Economic significance, sustainability and circularity

Children's content can be regarded as one of the most sustainable media products — content created for child audiences essentially does not age; it will continue to be used by children for at least another 5–10 years in the foreseeable future, and children born a year and a half ago happily watch the first season of Tutas lietas again and again and listen to its music. Yet the child audience is also the most demanding in terms of technology; the app is a logical response to this need.
In addition, the Tutas app has been built so that in the future it can be efficiently localised for other languages and markets in which the series Tutas lietas is or will be adapted, reusing the existing technological and content base. This ensures significant scalability without full redevelopment. Efficient reuse of existing content and games reduces resource consumption while generating new value, increasing the company's export capacity and supporting sustainability.

Social relevance, inclusion, availability and accessibility

The Tutas lietas app strengthens the Latvian language in the digital environment, reducing the impact of uncontrollable social media platforms on children's development, both in terms of content and language acquisition. It provides a safe, moderated environment without inappropriate recommendations or advertising, allowing parents not to worry that their child may 'wander off' into unfamiliar content. The text-free interface makes the app accessible regardless of the child's level of reading ability. Elements of the Montessori approach ensure that screen time supports development. The app will serve both children living in Latvia and the Latvian diaspora abroad, easing language acquisition and the building of a sense of belonging in environments where significant additional effort and time would otherwise be needed to achieve these goals — it is an accessible carrier of Latvian culture and language at a global scale for the youngest.

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