KidsScriptz, a Reader’s Theater App

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What is Kidscriptz?

Our product will improve reading for young users by making reading fun, interactive and collaborative.

What makes Kidscriptsz unique?

A conceptual reader’s theater interactive prototype that allows students to roleplay with other people whether it's a student, teacher, or friend using scripts created from grade-level books and stories. This will improve fluency, reading expression, and comprehension. The target age range is 6-8 with basic reading skills. We know our product will work when we see an improvement in reading levels among young users.

Problem

Best practices as shown in leading research children gain literacy faster when learning collaboratively, but the literacy apps of today are mostly individually based.

Opportunity

Collaborative, Role play reading

Hypothesis

We believe that a collaborative reading app will improve literacy by 20%.

Personas

For each persona, I identified the key tasks as well as their emotional state at each stage of the journey.

Research Phase

Research Insights, Although there are some great reading apps available with huge collections of high-quality books and features that make r5eading fun and interactive, they were all missing a collaborative aspect of reading.

Competitive Audit

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Considerations, Children vs. Adult Design

“When using an app, adults are more interested in a task-oriented approach, meaning they know what they want to accomplish and they want to do it fast and easy. Children, on the other hand, prefer an experience-oriented approach; they are in it for the journey, not much for the result.”

Rubens Cantuni,

Designing Digital Products for Kids

Age Level Considerations

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Paper Wireframes

Here I quickly drew out screens. I also considered an adult security code for changing settings or adding payment information. Also, I included the ability of users to invite their friends to roleplay.

Low Fidelity Wireframes

I tried to keep it consistent between screens and used large fonts and colors.

Since children like to see what different buttons can do (explore) on apps, I made sure to add a home button and back button to easily navigate if they get off task.

High Fidelity Wireframes

First hi-fi wireframes for usability testing.

Created on Figma.

I shared this high-fidelity design with the Women in Edtech Facebook Group. One Instructional Designer was very kind and offered some suggestions to make the design more accessible and organized.

Increase color contrast on text and icons (check on Color Contrast Analyser)

Add profile and password icons for struggling readers

Improve text organization on the ‘Line Practice’ page and ‘Script Description’ page

Match the orientation of graphics on every page for continuity

Widen the navigation bar at the bottom

Design Decisions

Improvements in accessibility and organization

Usability Testing

Chloe, My 7-Year-old Niece 😊

kidscriptz_1.mp3

drive.google.com

To begin the testing process, my niece did not know what Reader’s Theater was, which I thought was common practice in first grade but I guess not.

She was able to navigate through it but wanted to tap everything to see what happened.

She did brighten up on the ‘Set the Stage’ She wanted to add more props but didn’t know she would be able to move the props around

To determine where to go next on each screen, she had to explore by pressing random buttons.

She said that she wouldn’t invite a friend to participate but couldn't explain why.

Iterations based on testing results

On another iteration, I would add a character (digital friend, whether it be an animal or person) to explain what the reader’s theater was and how to use the app.

When comes to children, make sure you have a fully working prototype.

This would probably be a favorite part for most kids. I would make more props available but I would limit them to 10.

I would have a ‘next’ button instead of buttons labeled with the process

Maybe they can earn stars when they invite a friend.

Outcomes

This app was really fun to design. The features I believe that would stand out are the accessorizing of characters and setting the stage. When designing an app, it’s all about iteration.. iteration.. iteration. Some things to improve on are the consideration for accessibility, ensuring struggling readers could easily navigate the app with the use of icons, and ‘read aloud’ text. Although it’s not the final version, I feel if used consistently, it would improve reading fluency.