TinyTales
A five day design sprint to create possible solutions for a children's reading app.
About TinyTales
TinyTales is an app that brings the right books and stories for young children to read, learn, and discover. It allows parents and their young readers to quickly and easily select perfect stories.
The Challenge
The goals for the app were to:
1. Create an easy and stress-free reading experience for both parents and their young children.
2. Find stories that young readers will understand, learn, and enjoy.
My Role
Bitesize UX already provided initial research including surveys, interviews, and persona. My main task included user experience and interface. I sought feedback from user testing to gain valuable insights and to improve on exceeding user's reading experience.
Design Process
User Research
(provided by Bitesize UX)
Ideate
Prototype Design
Test
USER RESEARCH
User Interviews
The user research and personas were conducted by Bitesize UX. Parents were asked to talk through their process of finding a book or story to read to their children. This resulted in ten interview highlights.
User Persona
Bitesize UX conducted one user persona with Claire, a mother of two young children, to expand upon her experiences with finding a story for her children. I reviewed Claire's background information and indicated her behaviors, frustrations, and goals. This guided me toward designing better solutions to exceed her needs and expectations.
Claire, 34
Mother
Children: James (6) & Kayla (4)
BEHAVIOR
+ reads to her children at least 3 times a week
+ thinks reading to her children is an important part of family time
+ knows that reading to her kids is a good way for them to learn
+ find stories that her children will love
FRUSTRATIONS
+ spends more time looking for a story
+ spends time quickly flipping through the book to see if it's relevant
+ hard to find good stories about new topic or experiences her kids are interested in
+ flips through books to see if there is educationa value/lessons learned
GOALS
+ spend less time finding a great story
+ find stories that both her children will understand and enjoy
+ find stories about interested topics
+ find stories that contain some learning lessons or educational value
User Mapping
I drafted a proposed end-to-end experience for the various users (parents, grandparents, or caregivers) to achieve the goal of finding the right story to read for young children. I mapped out the fundamental tasks taken to achieve the end goal while keeping in mind of possible steps involved during the reading experience.
POTENTIAL SPRINT QUESTIONS
+ What might cause a child to lose interest in a book?
+ How can we assist parents in selecting the right book faster?
+ What motivates children to discover and learn more?
+ What factors create an easy and stress-free reading experience?
+ What are ways to help kids continue their reading journey?
POTENTIAL HOW MIGHT WE STATEMENTS
+ How might we encourage lessons learned from what was read?
+ How might we promote good reading habits for kids?
+ How might we reduce time in selecting the right book?
+ How might we prevent kids from being disengaged?
Lightning Demos
I researched three different competitors that delivered similar solutions to the problems that I aim to solve. There are differences among the three competitors but all are similar in the way they design relevant content to young children.
1
App | Epic - Kids' Books & Reading
2
YouTube Kids
3
App | Amazon Kids
APP TAKEAWAYS
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Personalized recommendations based on interests
-
Realistic graphic visuals for easy, fun interaction
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Game form design to encourage learning and discovery
APP TAKEAWAYS
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Offers recommended video clips
-
Kid-friendly content
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Parental control that customize kid's experience
APP TAKEAWAYS
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Content familiarity (Disney, Nickelodeon, PBS kids, etc.)
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Colorful visuals and graphics for fun experience
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Discover books by filter (name, character, title, author, etc.)
SKETCHES
Sketch
Iterations
I sketched out eight possible screens that were critical to the user's journey. I referred back to my user mapping to guide me in selecting essential moments in the reading experience.
(1-sign up, 2-personalization, 3-personalization, 4-home, 5-filter, 6-book launch, 7-reading page, 8-recommendations).
Solution
Sketches
Out of the eight sketches, I selected the discovery page as a critical screen. I sketched out what interfaces users would interact with before and after the discovery page. Users would complete personalization page which provides a relevant discovery page to which they could search for a specific book.
Wireframe
Sketches
DESIGN
Prototypes
Personalization
Home
Search
Search "Best Seller"
Filters
Book
Book Reviews
Read & Listen
Book Recommendations
USABILITY TEST
User
Testing
I sought feedback from five participants who were dads, mom, uncle, and nanny which provided diverse insights to my user testing. Out of the five user tests, three were conducted in person and two were conducted over Zoom. The purpose was to gain valuable feedback to better understand which elements of the app were successful and what needed better design solutions.
"My voice is not very animated so having a book that reads out loud is perfect for my son to be engaged with the story."
Wendell, Dad
Age | 35 years old
Children | 4 year old son
"I love how the reading app is very clean, simple, and straight to the point without too many distractions just like the kindle kids app."
Finny, Dad
Age | 37 years old
Children | 10 year old son
"It would be awesome to be able to see reading progress or completion track for each book as a way to increase motivation."
Myah, Nanny
Age | 23 years old
Children | 6 year old boy & 4 year old girl
"The design of the app, from the font to graphic icons, is very engaging for both me and my kids. I appreciate the book covers being the main visual focus."
Erin, Mom
Age | 40 years old
Children | 7 year old son & 4 year old daughter
"The personalized page helps me find the relevant books that my nephew might be interested in which saves me time."
Josh, Uncle
Age | 30 years old
Children | 5 year old nephew
Reflections
This project was exciting and fun to develop. It challenged me in a way of how I can bring accessibility to both age demographics (young readers as well as adults). If I had one more week developing the app, I would consider implementing a reward feature to promote a fun, interactive reading experience.