TinyTales

DESIGN SPRINT
BOOKS AND STORIES FOR YOUNG CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS

Figma

PROBLEM

TinyTales is an iPad app geared towards parents who want to read books and short stories aloud to their young children (4-9 years old). Parents have expressed that it’s been difficult and time consuming to find the right story to read to their children.

SOLUTION

To solve this problem, it was important to focus first and foremost on the search process and attempt to make it a simple, quick and enjoyable experience for parents and their children. I needed to do some research to understand what selection criteria were used by parents to select books.

For this Springboard project, I played the role of UX Researcher, Information Architect and UX/UI Designer.

PROGRAMS USED

MY ROLE

Understanding/Mapping
Sketching a Solution
Creating a Storyboard
Building a Prototype
Testing the Prototype

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

Day 5:

This project is part of a Google Ventures Design Sprint that I completed in 5 days. The design sprint was modified in order to include a reduced number of daily tasks to account for the fact that I was working on this project by myself, and not as part of a team.

Here is the program for each day of the sprint:

CONTEXT

DAY 1: UNDERSTANDING/MAPPING

I began by reviewing the existing user research that was provided for this Design Sprint. Here are some research highlights:

Persona

The persona is Claire, a 34-year-old mother of two children (James: 6 years old, Kayla: 4 years old). Claire wants to be able to quickly find the “right” story to read to her kids. She wants to find stories that are age appropriate for both children and that have an educational value. She wants to be able to search for topics that are of interest to her kids.

As part of the user research, there was an interview recording with a mother of three children. Although the discussion was primarily focused on physical books, it was helpful to understand the criteria used by parents to categorize children’s books.

User Interview

Common Issues

“I have all of our books

kind of in different categories [...]

The fancy schmancy books are

together, and the Berenstain Bears books are together. Chapter books

are separated from picture books.

I kind of go with what the

theme of the day might be.”

(Claire, kids: 4 and 6 years old)

I chose to focus on the following three citations, which give an overview of the types of problems parents encounter when selecting books to read for their children. I have provided proposed solutions for each one:

"The main thing we look for is

a specific topic that my daughter

will like. Her interests change all

the time though, so sometimes it takes a while to find the right story to read. Yesterday she told me she wants to read about giraffes - we had to do a lot of searching to find a good story!"

(Lindsey, kids: 7 years old)

Keyword Search: Proposed Solution

Have the ability to search by keyword for types of interests that don’t fit into one of the featured categories.

Although a book about a giraffe would be in the “Animals” section, it would be easier to enable parents to search for the word “giraffe” instead of having them browse through the animal books looking for one about giraffes.

Book Length: Proposed Solution

Indicate the length of the book so parents can decide if it matches what they are looking for at a given time.

"I usually let my kids pick a

topic that they like. Then I try to

scan through the book to see how

long it is. Sometimes we just want a quick book before bed … if it’s long,

I usually have to stop reading

before it’s over."

(Dan, kids: 4 and 6 years old)

"My kids are only a few years

apart, but it makes a big difference

when finding something they’ll both like. It takes a long time to find a book they agree on, let alone one that is a happy medium for them in terms of comprehension level."

(Margaret, kids: 4 and 7 years old)

Age: Proposed Solution

Parents should be able to create a profile for each of their kids with their respective age and interests.

Each child will have their own recommendations based on their profile.

There should also be a way to select both children at once and to provide common recommendations

(ex: a book that is written for the eldest child’s age group, but that is interesting enough for the youngest to follow).

Mapping

Research clearly indicates that parents don’t select books randomly. They each have their own requirements and a lot of thought and effort goes into finding the right book. TinyTales should therefore be versatile enough to cater to parents’ different needs and provide both recommendations and the ability to search more specifically in an efficient and streamlined manner.

The provided user research helped understand the goals and frustrations that parents have with regards to finding books to read to their children. This helped inspire my Map of Possible End-to-End User Experience.

Map of Possible End-to-End User Experience

DAY 2: SKETCHING A SOLUTION

Lightning Demos

After drawing the map of possible end-to-end user experience, I completed a solo version of the Lightning Demos to see how other companies tackle similar problems.

I chose to look at the following 4 apps that are relevant to the challenges I’m facing with TinyTales: Epic and Booka (companies that focus on children’s books) and Disney Plus and Netflix (companies that specialize in streaming video content based on user preferences).

In my opinion, the key to resolving the problem of finding and selecting the right book could be resolved with user customization and personalized recommendations.

Crazy 8's Exercise

After completing the lightning demos and finding some inspiring solutions to TinyTale’s problem, I sketched possible solutions to my most critical screen. I selected the Homepage as the most critical screen for this exercise. In my map of possible end-to-end user experience, the Homepage is the screen that the 1st time user will access right after saving the child’s profile. For a recurring user, this will be the first screen to appear after opening the app.

This screen is at the core of the app. It will include recommendations of books to read as well as the ability to search by keyword, categories and filters. The user will be able to browse the books on this screen and select the next book to read. This is the most important screen for solving our problem: helping parents find the right book for their child in a quick and efficient way.

Crazy 8's Exercise: Possible Solutions for the Homepage

Solution Sketch

I sketched a three-panel Solution using the 1st screen from my crazy 8s exercise. When looking for inspiration from Epic, Booka, Disney Plus and Netflix, I tried to notice the strengths and weaknesses of each app and incorporate what I felt would be beneficial to TinyTales.

For the layout of the Homepage, I was inspired by Disney Plus, where the Featured Categories (“Princesses collection,” “Beasts and Monsters collection,” “Mickey Mouse & Friends collection,” etc.) are listed at the top, and the Recommended Content, right below it. I sketched my Homepage in a similar manner and also added a Featured Authors section.

I sketched the Search Screen on the right because it’s one of the screens that may come after the Homepage, should the user wish to be more specific about their search instead of browsing the books from the Homepage. The search text field allows the user to search for a specific title, author or keyword. I also included an option to filter by category: book length, book type, recommended age, book language and more filters.

I sketched the User Preferences Screen on the left because user preferences directly influence the content on the Homepage. The “Edit” button on that screen is located on the top right corner, just like the “Search” button on the homepage. This screen includes the child’s avatar, first name, age, languages and interests.

Solution Sketch
Left: screen that comes before the critical screen | Center: critical screen | Right: screen that comes after the critical screen

DAY 3: CREATING A STORYBOARD

After sketching the three-panel solution sketch, I sketched a Storyboard with the following screens: Onboarding, User Preferences, Homepage, Search, Search Results, Book Information and Read Mode. This was a challenging exercise because it forced me to make certain important decisions very quicky: what to include in the bottom navigation tab and how to organize the search screen.

Storyboard

DAY 4: BUILDING A PROTOTYPE

High Fidelity Mockups

To prepare the Prototype, I designed High Fidelity Mockups using the structure of my Storyboard sketches. Here is a selection of screens.

Create Child's Profile

Child's Profile

Homepage

Search Results

Book Information

Prototype

The Prototype follows the process of finding and selecting a book to read, starting with the Onboarding Screen of a 1st time user and until the full-page Read Mode of the selected book.

With the design sprint, there is no time to do an elaborate prototype with lots of details, but the short amount of time I had was very productive. I find it incredible that I was able to make a realistic-looking prototype in such a short amount of time.

I would have wanted to develop some screens further, for instance the advanced search screen and the screen to select the child’s interests. In the prototype, I only have 7 options to select from, but there should be many more.

My goals for testing the prototype were to understand how users react to the customization portion of the app. Do they find it helpful? Do they understand the meaning of the icons on the navigation tab? I wanted the users to walk me through what their process would be like if they were searching for a book to read to their children.

View TinyTales Prototype

DAY 5: TESTING THE PROTOTYPE

User Testing

I tested the prototype with 6 participants from my target audience: parents of young children (ages 4 to 9).

There were some challenges associated with the fact that this was a design sprint, and the prototype was therefore very simple. The screens on their own look quite realistic, but there wasn’t enough time to develop the prototype more fully. Users were tempted to explore the prototype but felt limited by the fact that it wasn’t completely interactive as a real app would have been.

Even with a very basic prototype, I was able to validate my design and to see that it does appear to solve the problem. All participants were able to complete the task and to understand the layout of the app. The UI was clear to everyone and there were no confusions.

The most common criticism received from the participants was regarding the date of birth that the user is asked to fill out in the child’s profile. For most parents, this seemed to cause concern for privacy reasons, and they said they wouldn’t feel comfortable adding it there. They prefer to either be asked for the birth year, the age of the child, or perhaps select an age bracket instead of inputting their child’s exact birth date. In order to ensure that the app is up to date with the child’s age, one of the participants suggested to have the app regularly ask the parents (every 6 months) if the child’s age is still the same.

One of the participants felt like there should be more inclusive avatars. Perhaps each character could be further customized to the child’s physical attributes: skin tone, hair color and eye color.

Parents also felt like there should be more interests options to select in the child’s profile. They suggested princesses, princes and superheroes.

Completing this modified design sprint has been quite demanding, but also truly exciting. It forced me to rush and take certain decisions quicker than I would have done if I had more time. When faced with strict time limitations, I was actually quite productive and managed to accomplish much more than I thought I would.

I received good feedback about the customization portion of the app and the participants were excited to have the flexibility to either browse for book recommendations or search for specific books.

The findings from my user testing appear to suggest that I am on the right track to solve TinyTale’s problem and help parents find a book for their kids in a quick and efficient manner.

Of course, I would need to design a more elaborate prototype and retest my proposed solution, but at this stage, it seems clear that parents are responding well to my design. I would be excited to continue working on this project and making TinyTales the best app of its kind.