The Challenge

The idea for ActiveBooks stemmed from a clear need: to enhance the bonding experience between grandparents and their grandchildren aged 3-6 years during video chats. Our research highlighted a gap in activities that could facilitate meaningful interactions across the digital divide. Grandparents often needed a conversational guide to help them engage with their grandchildren effectively.

The Solution

Our solution was to introduce ActiveBooks – a series of interactive books designed to be a facilitator during video chats. These books included a variety of activities such as reading, learning games, and playful interactions. The content was crafted to serve as a conversational guide, ensuring that grandparents could easily navigate through activities and engage their grandchildren in a meaningful way.

Process

The development of ActiveBooks was a collaborative effort, involving extensive research and user testing. Our team utilized a variety of tools including Adobe XD for UI design, Miro for brainstorming, and Lookback.io for usability testing. Through surveys, interviews, and ethnographic studies, we gained insights into the challenges and preferences of our target users.

• Empathize and Research: We delved into understanding user needs through surveys, interviews, cultural probes, and usability tests, focusing on industry trends, child development, and competitor analysis. 
• Define: Synthesizing our findings, we crafted a “How Might We” statement to focus our ideation on enhancing the grandparent-grandchild bond. 
• Ideate: Our ideation process involved brainstorming sessions, exploring potential solutions, and refining our concept based on the HMW statement. 
• Prototype: We developed the information architecture, user flows, and screen wireframes, leading to the creation of a lo-fi prototype. 
• Test and Refine: The prototype underwent rigorous user testing, with feedback informing iterative design improvements.

Key Learnings

One of the major learnings from this project was the importance of designing with the user in mind. ActiveBooks was not just about adding content; it was about enhancing user experience by facilitating interactions that felt natural and engaging. We learned that sometimes, the best way to assist users is by seamlessly integrating guidance into the product, making the experience intuitive and enjoyable.

Outcomes

The introduction of ActiveBooks to the Together App was met with positive feedback from users. It addressed a crucial need for guided interaction, making video chats more engaging and meaningful for grandparents and grandchildren. The feature also helped in categorizing content within the app, making it more user-friendly and accessible.

Reflection

Leading the ActiveBooks project was a rewarding experience that highlighted the impact of thoughtful design on user experience. It demonstrated how technology can be used to bridge generational gaps, bringing families closer in an increasingly digital world. ActiveBooks is a testament to the power of collaborative innovation and user-centered design in creating products that truly meet the needs of its users.

Major Discoveries

In this section of my portfolio, I present a curated selection of visuals that map out the pivotal journey of the ActiveBooks project. These sections underscore the moments that significantly influenced the final outcome of our initiative to enhance the bonds between grandparents and grandchildren through interactive books.

Usability Test

In these usability tests, we wanted to pinpoint some of the issues that users mentioned in the Survey for current users that we conducted.

Recommendations

• • Some issues can be fixed by revamping some UI elements.
  • Conduct a heuristics review across various systems and devices to discover more possible pain points that users could be encountering.

Wireframes: Structuring the Experience

Information Architecture

User Flows

MVP

Book Activity Section

Familiarity

To help users locate items on the screen, we will place them in areas they are familiar with, such as the header at the top and the footer at the bottom.

Reducing Cognitive Load

To reduce the cognitive load for the user, we minimized the number of items on each screen, and most screens will require one action at a time and will have instructions.

Consistency

In each activity within the books, we made the layout consistent. Which will help the user forms habits that become almost second nature. To achieve this, we made the main elements uniform. They look, behave, and are in the same areas across different screens.

Accessibility strategies

Accessibility strategies deployed to support users:
In our project ActiveBooks, we considered our two primary users, children ages 3-6 and grandparents, and applied some inclusivity and accessibility strategies to support them.

Mid-fi Feedback

Opportunities for improvement

• • Natural movement users performed was Drag and drop. Not clicking or tapping.
  • Call button should be more prominent.
  • Puzzle activity proved very confusing for users.

Positive Feedback

• • Users understand the purpose of the application.
  • Users find it simple and easy to understand.
  • Users like the idea of interactive books: “It is bringing books to life for kids!”

Mid-fi Screen Updates

• • We made the instructions in each activity clear by adding the word “CLICK.” This will let the user know that they have to click to perform an action.
  • Made the call button more prominent.
  • Made a new puzzle with a more easily identifiable image.

My Role

I prepared the moderated and unmoderated scripts for the user testing sessions. Then synthesized the feedback to report to our stakeholders.

For the User Interface, I updated the screens and created new elements based on the feedback from our user testing sessions. Such as rewriting parts of a story to make the instructions clear and redesigning an activity.