StoryQuest

StoryQuest is an online library of children's stories written and illustrated by talented authors and illustrators.

Role

Product Designer

Timeline

5 days (one week modified GV design sprint)

StoryQuest is a digital reading platform designed for parents and guardians to read stories and books to their children. They are looking to expand the product by adding features that would streamline the process of finding the right story to read.

Design restrictions:

  • Designed as an iPad or Tablet app

  • Stories are discovered and read in the app - parents are not ordering hard copies or printing out stories, or reading on another app/device

Design and implement new search and discovery features that would make it easier for parents and kids to filter through the wide selection of books.

Overview

The Solution

Parents who use StoryQuest have expressed difficulty in finding the right stories to read to their children. Due to preferences and the abundance of options available, parents have found they spend more time searching for a book and less time reading.

The Problem

Role & Design Process

As the sole product designer, my role was to sketch, storyboard, prototype and test. Initial research and interviews were provided to me at the start of the sprint.

Day 2 (Sketch)

Day 1 (Understanding)

Day 3 (Decisions)

Day 4 (Prototyping)

Day 5 (Validate)

Day 1: Understanding

Day one involved familiarizing myself with the product and understanding users' pain points through preliminary research findings provided by Tiny Tales. After synthesizing this primary research through affinity mapping, I gathered a list of needs and issues discussed among participants. Some of the key insights from users were:

  • Users experience difficulty in finding the right story

  • Users want to spend more time reading and less time searching for the right book

  • Users want a better way to give and receive book recommendations 

  • Book length, subject matter and educational value are important factors when choosing what to read

From the interviews, users expressed some of the following:

Expanding off the affinity map findings, I thought about the different steps a user would need to take to achieve their goal. I outlined two end-to-end experience journeys that explored possible solutions to the problems users faced.

User Experience Mapping

Day 2: Sketching

Lightning Demos: Before beginning any sketching, I conducted a solo lightning demo exercise where I searched for different products that could serve as inspiration for my design. These direct and indirect competitors already have working solutions to some of the current problems faced by parents using StoryQuest. Below are some screens that felt particularly useful when thinking through my own solution:

SEARCH/BROWSE PAGES

Booka & Epic

Both Book and Epic have great search pages that have filters that allow users to indicate the child's age, interests and even reading level. They also display categories/themes to make it easier to find relevant topics for kids.

ADD TO LIST FUNCTION

Bookaroo & Spotify

Bookaroo allows users to "keep" the book so that they can save it to their bookshelf. Spotify has an 'add to playlist' option which allows users to add a song a playlist that they personally created.

Crazy 8’s Sketches: After looking at different screens, I conducted a Crazy 8’s sketching exercise to quickly generate ideas. This consisted of eight different iterations of what I assumed would be the most critical screen. The critical screen being the point in which users would be able to access filter choices and narrow down search results.

I chose to pursue this design direction

CREATE MULTIPLE PROFILES

Bookaroo & Little Stories

Bookaroo and Little Stories have registration screens that allow users to create profiles for their children. Simple questions are asked upfront to create a more personalized experience for users based on their profile settings. Users can also add more than one profile to account for families with multiple kids.

After comparing and reviewing the designs, I opted for screen 7 because I felt it could address the target user’s goals and frustrations best. I believed it would help parents with story and book selection while also being visually familiar and least obtrusive to the overall experience.

Three-Panel Board: After deciding on that screen, I built out a mini storyboard with two additional screens: one that comes before the critical screen and the one that comes after. This also helped set the foundation of what the prototype would include.

Day 3: Decisions, Decicions

After choosing my critical screen and developing the three-panel storyboard, I continued to build out a full storyboard of screens to match the user journey maps I created.

Dashboard screen

Search by category

Filter by specific attributes

Results

View details and preview book

Day 4: Prototype

Once I had a storyboard I felt satisfied with, I started developing a prototype in Figma. I spent time translating the sketched elements to a more high-fidelity state. In building out the UI, I had to make quick and deliberate decisions regarding fonts, icons and other components. Being a thoughtful and detail-oriented person, I found this process to be quite challenging. However, I knew it would be good practice in creating rapid prototypes. 

Dashboard

Allows users to quickly access current and past books along with new releases and most read

Featured Categories

Narrow down search query with a variety of categories to choose from

Filters

Filter search results by certain attributes to quickly find the right story

Info Cards

Quickly scan key information at a glance before deciding on a selection

Share

Share and receive recommended books from friends within the app

Prototype

Day 5: Testing

On day 5 of the design sprint, I conducted usability tests with 5 individuals to test my assumptions and determine whether the proposed solutions resolved issues faced by users. 

Provided tasks: 

  1. Search for an adventure book

  2. Filter the search results to include books that are for ages 8-10, 10+ minutes in length and reading level D-E.

  3. Choose one of these books

  4. Identify the elements on the screen

  5. Read book

  6. Share book

Each participant was asked to complete the above tasks and give any feedback they had on whether or not the screens were helping in achieving the overall goal. In general, participants found the prototype simple, minimalist and easy to use and navigate. They all concluded that the prototype solved the core problem of spending less time searching for a book. While no major usability issues were uncovered during the tests, participants did identify areas where the user experience could be enhanced even further. The following are a few items that could be included in future iterations:

  1. Add user reviews and personalized recommendations based on reading history

  2. Provide accessibility features for users with disabilities such as text-to-speech and phonemic awareness

  3. Expand on the “Book Club” feature

  4. Display the percentage of users who recommend a specific book

Conclusion

I found the process of going through a design sprint to be challenging but rewarding. The fast pace of the sprint forces you to move quickly and requires thoughtful and deliberate decision making. Finding the correct balance of speed and quality is key to delivering a solution. During the week, I was reminded the importance of: 

  • Effectively using research synthesis methods to gain understanding of the issues and needs. 

  • Carefully identifying the correct MVP to test and iterate on. 

  • Utilizing sketching as a way to generate ideas quickly.

  • Rapidly prototyping testable screens without focusing too much on the details.