Answer extracted from The Tim Ferriss Show podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How does Mentava's approach to user experience design accommodate the physical limitations of young children using tablets?
Mentava accounts for the real physical realities of how toddlers hold and interact with tablets — particularly two and three-year-olds bracing iPads on their bellies. The platform is designed to be robust against accidental touches at the bottom of the screen, a failure point that crashes competing apps. Rather than punishing children for their developmental stage and lack of fine motor control, Mentava's software gracefully handles these inevitable interactions.
Most educational apps assume users have adult-level precision and dexterity. When a child rests a tablet on their body and accidentally brushes the bottom edge with their arm or torso, typical applications crash or exit to the home screen entirely. This isn't a bug in the child's behavior — it's a gap in how the software was designed.
Mentava's design philosophy starts by observing and accepting how young children actually use devices, not how developers imagine they should. The team mapped out the specific anatomical and behavioral patterns of toddlers interacting with tablets — where they rest the device, how their hands and body move, what kinds of accidental input are inevitable at each developmental stage.
"Mentava is software that is designed to let kids learn as fast as they're capable of learning instead of just at the pace assigned to their age."
Niels Hoven — Founder and CEO of Mentava. Hoven has a background in game design and worked at Cloudflare, Class Dojo, and Pocket Gems, where he ran the highest-grossing mobile game in the world in 2011. During the pandemic, locked down in a 600 square foot one-bedroom apartment with three young children, he and his wife realized there was no software designed for young children to teach themselves to read, which led to creating Mentava.
The robustness built into Mentava's interface—preventing crashes from accidental touches—is just one piece of a larger commitment to accommodating developmental realities. By treating the physical limitations of young children not as obstacles but as design requirements, Mentava removes friction that would otherwise pull a child out of the learning experience.
For parents and educators, this attention to real-world usage matters deeply. A child learning to read shouldn't lose progress or motivation because their motor control accidentally triggered an unintended action. As Hoven explains in the episode, every detail of Mentava's software is stress-tested against the natural movements and limitations of its actual user base — children aged three and up who are still developing coordination and precision.
Designing Around Real Child Behavior, Not Idealized Use
The distinction is crucial: Mentava didn't design an app and then hope children would use it correctly. Instead, the team observed how children naturally interact with tablets — which is messier, more chaotic, and less predictable than desktop software assumes. A two or three-year-old doesn't carefully tap a single button; they explore, swipe, press, and sometimes just rest their body against the screen.
This led to a defensive design approach where unintended input doesn't break the experience. Accidental touches are filtered, buffered, or ignored gracefully. The app doesn't crash. The child isn't scolded by an error message. Learning continues.
The rigor here is worth underscoring: details about the methodology behind Mentava's design testing reveal a deep commitment to understanding developmental stages. Every interaction is designed not in isolation but in the context of how that particular age group physically engages with technology.
Key takeaways
- Mentava accounts for the inevitable accidental touches that occur when toddlers rest tablets on their bodies while using them.
- The platform prevents crashes and unintended exits—failures that would interrupt learning in competing apps.
- Design decisions are based on real observations of how young children physically interact with devices, not on assumptions.
- Robustness against developmental limitations is a core feature, not an afterthought, allowing children to focus on learning rather than managing the interface.
See also
What concrete examples demonstrate how rapidly young children can learn to read using Mentava?
Mentava has seen two-year-old twins reading Green Eggs and Ham and Hop on Pop before their third birthday. A three-year-old learned to read in about three months using the platform.
What is Mentava's core mission and how does it differ from traditional educational software?
Mentava is software designed to let kids learn as fast as they're capable of learning instead of just at the pace assigned to their age. The first product is early literacy software designed for preschoolers as young as three to reach a second grade reading level.
What expectations do cancer survivors face when they complete treatment, and how do these differ from their actual experience?
Survivors receive congratulatory messages implying a clear endpoint when treatment ends, but the reality is more complex and ongoing.