User Research-

Before starting my research I needed to be determine that I was  choosing the correct group of individuals to create this project for (children/uni students). I had set my mind on designing and creating my product design for this project for children age 8-10 because I knew that I would have further access to gathering research with these groups of individuals. I also knew that as a designer my strengths lie more on child like and fun design concepts than on a more sophisticated design that would be expected when creating the digital product for undergraduate students.

I knew the best way that I would find my needed data would be to look into asking my target audience face to face to get their responses and answers to my questions. To do this I conducted some Primary research that would allow me to then further use my data to create my user personas. From here then I also conducted Secondary research that would help build more of an understanding for myself of this topic in science before heading into design a digital product around something I had little knowledge on.

Currently with covid the ability to gain access into schools I am aware isn’t a possibility. So with my idea of requesting the help from the set primary classes of P4-P7 of my past Primary school out the window I decided I would use my volunteering skills the best of my ability.

Every Monday night 6-8pm I attend my churches Girls Brigade where my sister and I volunteer to take the Senior and Brigadier section of the GB ageing from 11-18. With this however, on a Monday night our Junior section also takes place which ages from 7-10.  I thought this would give me the best opportunity to take a few of our Junior section girls that range from P4-P7 to gain access to the information that I would need.

 

Questionnaires – Primary Research

The best way I thought to ensure that I get all my questions answered and to gather as much data as possible was to create a set of questions that I could put to my users.

Google forms is always my go to tool to use to create my questionnaires simply because it gives me full access to a range of possible question types such as multiply chose, long/short answers etc. Google Forms is also free to use with my gmail account and I can openly share my questionnaire with whom I want to access it for answered. When my data is collected then Google forms automatically store all the gathered data and groups all the answers from each individual and breaks them into percentage amount to allow me to see the similarities in answer which works perfectly to help create my user personas.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdq7Th9w794H-1ZkTp25qVXaiQ-_bBPFkEmbRDPwLGiRtCNtw/viewform?usp=sf_link

For my questionnaire I split this into two sections that separated my device info/educational questions and my questions that were related to specifically science and the periodic table to ensure that I was getting their full understanding of the topic and what I was creating. Some of the questions that I included were:

  • Device knowledge (access to downloading, access to their own device)
  • Games that they play
  • What they play their games on (board, card, digital games)
  • If they use devices in school
  • How they use their devices in school
  • How they find school and the learning system
  • What they enjoy about their current applications they play both at home and at school (colour, sound, design)
  • Their time limits on devices
  • Other applications they play (competition, design ideas)
  • Knowledge on science, elements and periodic table
  • What they would like to find out if they were to learn about science, elements and periodic table

 

November 15th 2021 – GB Girls

With my questionnaire completed it was time to put my questions to the people. I interviewed 4 GB girls all ranging from 8-10 in primary 4,5,6 and 7. I selected these four specific girls to allow me to have a range of ages and educational levels. They were also the four that I knew I would get the best response from as they enjoy a chat and because of this they didn’t disappoint. I had my sister help me with this, as I asked the questions to each girl my sister was able to note down their answers. I done it this way to ensure that I got their full answers and I could understand the answers they were given me fully when I would reevaluate their data, something I would possibly have struggled with if I had allowed them to just fill the answers in freely.

With the GB girls I also got to ask one of the younger BB boys that sometimes attends our Monday night sessions who is in primary 7 and aged 10. I thought it was best to include a boy to give a wider insight into how males might answer the questions specifically looking into his response to the educational questions to see how he feels about the schooling system and his interpretation to how he find using devises and gaming system.

 

User Personas

5 chocolate bars down, 5 happy kids and 5 responses later I have began my creation of my User Personas. I have completed User Personas in the past for previous projects but never really got the full understanding behind the use of them. So with this project I was determined to gather as much research into these before creating my own to fully in-depth myself into developing strong personas for my elements project.

I decided to create my persons using Adobe Illustrator as this is a tool that I feel most comfortable using. I began with designing my personas from using my answers received from my questionnaires and splitting the received answers into age categories youngest to oldest and creating my persona around a P4 and another from a P7. I also thought it would be best to have my personas showcasing a female and male to showcase not only the differences in age and education level but also their understanding and outlook of technology and education.

 

My personas included:

Ben from West Belfast, aged 10 and is currently in Primary 7.

  • Ben has dyslexia making it a struggle to learn with numbers and letters when reading long paragraph or long sums. Ben has extra help in school where he uses an iPad to help him with his differences in numeracy and literacy.
  • Ben enjoys being creative and enjoys Art and PE most in school but other subjects like English he struggles to stay focused.
  • Ben has a range of knowledge when it comes to his usage with devices both in school and at home.
  • Ben enjoys applications that require little reading and text as he looses focus quickly and is easily bored if he doesn’t understand the task.

Anna from North Belfast, aged 8 and is currently in Primary 4

  • Anna is top of her class in the reading and enjoy getting to read the new Biff, Chip and Kipper books
  • Anna is confident pupil who love to answer questions
  • Anna enjoy getting to school to learn big words and play with her friends on the school computers
  • Anna’s mum has a time limit on her usage of the iPad at home but this doesn’t include when homework is to be completed using the iPad
  • Anna love getting to play purple mash with her friends in class when the iPads come out
  • Anna loves colour and sharing her games with friends

 

I have created what I think are two strong User Personas that showcases the gathered data from my questionaries. My User Personas give a well explained diagram into what my expected users would face when looking to understand their education needs/wants, technology knowledge, pain points, UX needs in application and application that they currently have an interest in and reasoning behind these.

Both of my personas bring together all the research to showcase the understanding of developing an application for two very different users.

User Journey Mapping 

User Journey Mapping is the process of creating a user journey through a visual story of the interactions with a brand or product. Creating this allows me to  step into my users potential thoughts and feelings behind my digital product given me their perspective further showcasing their potential needs.

I created my User Journey Map using Figma creating the users potential:

  1. Actions
  2. Feelings
  3. Touch points
  4. Painpoints 

Secondary Research – My understanding

With conducting my own Primary Research I also conducted some Secondary Research that I thought was important to understand prior to even thinking about what I would be creating.

For this specific project when Kyle introduced us to what we would be creating I immediately knew that I have little understanding of the components behind the periodic table, elements and overall just science. And because of this issue I was facing I believed that I wouldn’t be able to produce an effective application if I didn’t have a good understanding of how elements, atoms and the periodic table works. How can I expect to design a platform to help teach and learn children about elements and the periodic table if I didn’t myself understand it in the first place. 

To overcome this issue I began learning the basics of the subject using BBC Bitesize, keeping notes on what I was finding to grasp the full understanding of how elements, atoms and the periodic table works. With this then I also currently work in the secondary school I previously attended meaning that I have close connection to teachers that would give me full excess to learning this subject via texts books and print out of notes for GCSE science classes. 

  

With these sources to help develop my understanding of this topic I have got the basics covered but I’m still not happy with the amount that I’m aware of as I still get confused when it comes to the workings of an atom. For this reason I am still looking into making notes and building my knowledge as much as I can to ensure that I can produce the best digital product that include all the correct information.

Secondary Research – Reading levels

Alongside then with my understanding of the topic that this project is focusing on I thought that it would be best to keep focusing on the research gathered about my users and with this in mind I knew I wanted to research further into my users reading levels and what I should expected from them when it comes to their capabilities as users from 8-10 year olds.

I knew with designing for young kids I would also want to understand a little further of the educational standard I would be designing for and in terms of reading standard. I used Oxford owl.com to understand the bands of reading each age and primary year would be expected to be at from P1 to P7.

https://cdn.oxfordowl.co.uk/2019/07/19/13/52/18/160/OxfordLevelsAndBookBands.png

 

To discover further the reading capabilities that I would be expecting to meet, I decided that I would interview my aunt that currently works in Currie Primary school as a classroom assistant assisting Primary 4. Having this sit down chat allowed me to discover further the level of reading that specifically P4s would be reviewing from their first term in September to their last in July. My aunt gave me some example books of what her class read, alongside applications that they use on the school iPads to help develop their learning specifically with reading and spelling, one being Accelerator Reader. An application that quizzes the children with questions related to a book that has the teacher has assigned them to read that term/week.

With getting to chat with my aunt she also got me access to a reading script that the teacher of her class kindly gave me to photocopy and take notes on. This script included all related information that each primary school teacher in Northern Ireland must follow in terms of reading levels and capabilities for each primary stage and for each child. This script gave me the insight into what I need to expect when it come to each reading level from Primary 4-7. For example the stage they can tell the difference between fiction and non fiction books, spelling mistakes, number of letters they are aware of, length of reading time expected at each stage and further more information that I got to go through and highlight for each user I am aiming to create my product for.

Competitor Analysis –

Following my research that’s been conducted above then I thought best that I should begin looking at some competitor applications that are out there for children age 8-10 on the App Store that is both related to teaching and understanding elements and the periodic table and also general applications out that are popular within this age range that are used in schools and for leisure time. Conducting this research allows me to gather some understanding of the concept behind popular applications, design methods used to attract children such as buttons etc and if there is an open market for the idea and project that I am aiming to create.

When I interviewed the children using my questionnaire one of my main questions I wanted to get answers for was:

  1. Their most used device
  2. The games they play most on their device at home and at school
  3. If they had a time limit when using their devices at home or at school

 

To my surprise even though I had questioned a range of ages from 8-10, in a range of primary classes, schools and both genders a lot of my answers I received were the same. I found that:

The most used device was between a iPhone and a iPad and is used to play games and watch video games. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most played app at home included. 

The most played apps in school

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see with just some of the results above the pattern of similarity with devices and also the applications used both in an education and leisure setting. I decided that I would research into 2 educational application that’s used on the school devices to discover the methods used on these application to help children learn, 2 leisure application that’s used at home mainly to discover the design concept that’s used in order to understand what attracts the children to these applications and then some further research into some educational and scientific applications out there that I could find via the Apple App Store.

 

Educational Application – Apps at school

Firstly we have Accelerator reader, a web application that be used by teachers and parents to improve or “accelerate” children’s reading skill. children are either assigned or choose a book, they then have to read through the book and log onto their Accelerator reader account and from here they are given quizzes and activities that test their knowledge and memory of the book. This application is also used for homework when reading tasks have been set.

 

Secondly we have Hit the button, a interactive maths game that offers children quick fire questions on number bonds, times tables, doubling and halving, multiples, division facts and square numbers. The games, which are against the clock, challenge and develop the children’s mental maths skills. I found this an interesting application to discover as I didn’t think the children at age 8 would be able to play a game that is so quick and against the clock.

 

Both of these application were designed to learn and learn only both had very basic and simple design that I could picture would get boring to look at after a while.

 

Leisure Application – Apps at home

The applications that the children from the questionnaire spoke about that they play most at home were all the same so I research the most popular ones that were mentioned which included:

Roblox- 

Roblox is a global platform that allows access to millions of people round the world where you get to imagine, create, and share experiences with each other in immersive, user-generated 3D worlds.

To me I with just doing research this had the vibe of a child like sims game where you build up and create your world and character that interacts with other users of the app. One area of this application that interested me hugely was their marketing technique on ensuring that parents are aware of the safety guide that they provide for the child aged users something many application lack today especially ones that have access to chat rooms with strangers as this.

 

Cool Math Games is an online web portal that hosts HTML and Flash web browser games targeted at children and young adults. When I was younger this website gaming platform  was hugely popular then to play a range of brain training games. It shocked me to hear that it’s still a gaming platform used by kids that creates a fun and unique way of learning. This new generation of school kids have now access to Cool maths games via the App Store which gives them the access to a wide variety of games outside school, where as when I had access I could only play the games that came with site on the school desktop computers.

However the overall design of this site is and always has been pretty basic but as a kid playing in this platform and speaking with the children its clear to see that children go to this website or application for one thing and that to play the games they are familiar with and all they need access too is a button and image of the game they are wanting to play

With these educational and leisure apps I also took myself to the Apple App Store to see any educational element apps that are out there to demonstrate to myself the best way I could lay out and structure this project as well as what content and how I could organised the data when it came to designing.

These are some of the competitor applications out there that are available on the App Store. Most of them are either quiz themed application or just application that have a interactive periodic table. The majority of these apps seemed fun and well designed but I did find that many weren’t so child friendly and didn’t exactly teach anything if you weren’t aware of elements or the periodic table prior to using some of these application then they were pretty useless. I got the impression that these application would be good for resources for revising this area of science. However, the amount of applications I had found forcing on science does demonstrate that there is a potential market out there for my project.

 

Overall I believe I have gather a strong amount of research in regards to understanding my users and their needs fully. I must understand the children I am designing for to ensure that the content that I am including in my digital product is informative and significant to this project that is set. Thanks to my research I have a wide range of knowledge to the content that I must provide as well as how to produce and showcase the data that I believe the children would be aiming to learn when using my digital product.

For this weeks task Kyle has assigned us to complete: 

  • A Competitor Analysis 
  • Consider doing some user research (questionaries) 
  • User Scenarios 
  • Site Maps
  • Wire Frames
  • User Personas

 

And for next week our task include: 

  • Starting to consider the visual atheistic 
  • Early Prototyping

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