TinyTales is an app that authors and illustrators can use to submit children’s books and stories, and parents can then look through the library and read stories to their children without having to buy or download any books.  The TinyTales crew have noticed that users have been running into issues so they conducted user research. I have been tasked to perform a modified design sprint to analyze the data in order to identify what the problems are and find solutions.

I began the day one process by reading through and analyzing the background, research, and user interviews done by the the TinyTales team. Through all this research and analysis I was able to synthesize it down to a main problem and 3 specific priorities.

The Problem

It is difficult and time consuming for parents to find a story they want to read to their children. 

Day 1

Day 2

DoorDash ended up giving me the most inspiration, I thought that their filter flow was easy and quick. Having filter options at the top makes this app usable for searching as soon as you open it. I think that having an immediate filter option on the top of the home screen would be useful to the TinyTales users.

Sketching involved two main steps: Crazy 8 sketch exercise and then further sketching an idea from it. Examining the end-to-end user experiences previously mapped out I selected one to do the Crazy 8’s exercise with. Setting an 8 minute timer I made 8 sketches of 8 different possible solutions for this end-to-end experience. After the timer went off I chose the screen I thought worked best and made a multi-screen sketch with that solution.

Day 4

User Priorities

• searching for specific age groups

• Searching for specific lengths of stories 

• Finding a story quickly

My next step was to draft some possible end-to-end user experiences. This helped me to analyze the ideal steps and functions a user would preform. Through the background information and research provided by TinyTales it became clear that the parents using this app did not have a quick and easy way to filter for specific story qualifications, and many of the users expressed not having much time to search. Due to this issue I decided to ideate end-to-end experiences that involved a filter function.

Day 3

Draft of possible end-to-end user experiences

With the problem statement and main user priorities defined as well as the end-to-end drafts made I began the lightening demos by thinking about what types of competitors to look at. I wanted not only to look at a competitor with a similar product but also needs for similar functions. I decided to look at Amazon, Peacock, and DoorDash

I thought Amazon would have the best examples but after analyzing the competitors it was clear that Amazon was not the best example for this project.  I think Amazon’s filters had too many options for this context and required too much effort and thought.  The users are mainly parents trying to easily and quickly find stories to read to their children.

When looking at the Peacock app I liked how I chose a larger category filter, like TV Shows, and then I was able to browse genres with in TV Shows.

Using the sketch made at the end of day two I created a 5 panel storyboard of the user flow in the sketch. I chose some essential user actions for the flow to act as a lightweight wire frame for the prototype. This process helped me map out and understand the end-to-end user experience further.

In the 5 panel sketch I wanted to explore the steps of someone browsing for stories and ultimately going to saved stories.  In my eyes those are two common actions, the filtered browse and returning to a saved library.  I wanted to design the app to be immediately browsable when opened like DoorDash. This was a priority for me because the busy parents using this app would want to be able to get started right away when searching for a story in their tight schedule.

Day 4 I made a simple draft of a prototype. My intention for the prototype was to test some of the essential features users would use to find a story and to observe how users interacted with it.  With this prototype I could test the ease of function and identify any issues in my design. I kept the colors dark and calm to avoid a bright screen when parents search for bedtime stories. I wanted to make story length and age range the primary filters since parents expressed speed of searching, age range, and story length as being the most important during the users interviews. Story genre was also important to the parents so I thought that would be perfect for the browsing function.



Day 5

Day 5 was the user testing step, for this step in the process I recruited 5 people to test the prototype I developed. I chose 5 people who either would use a product like this currently or would’ve in the past. During the interviews I took notes on their feedback while watching to see if they chose the correct steps. Testing went really well with little friction, but going through the interviews afterwards I was able to pin point some issues to iron out.

User Feedback

Analyzing my notes from the user testing I was able to synthesize the data into positive and negative feedback.

Positive

• Many users moved through the flow with ease

• The flow was described as an expected order

• The about section was useful

• Easy and natural to flip through

• Liked how it was immediately browsable when opened

Negative

Link to design sprint prototype

After looking through all of the research and background given to me by TinyTales I was able to find the key problem: users had limited time and found it difficult and time consuming to find a story that fit their specifications.

I noticed that there did not seem to currently be a way to filter stories for browsing titles. Users expressed that age range and the length of time it took to read the story as the two most important aspects they look for when searching for a story. I made those the two immediate filters at the top of the app when opened, then the user can browse the results within various categories. Many of the users spoke about needing to find a story quickly so by making the two most important criteria for the user at the top of the home screen makes the app usable as soon as it’s opened. These changes make finding a story to read to faster and more simple for the users.

• Saved icon is not immediately recognizable

• The copy in the about section was hard to read

Conclusion