TinyTales

A design sprint solution for a storybook reading app.

PROJECT TYPE // UX Design, Design Sprint, Ideation, Tablet App

TEAM // Solo project

DURATION // 5 days

TOOLS // Figma

↓

 

The Problem

Help parents find great stories for their kids

TinyTales’s collection of books and stories is so large that it’s difficult and time consuming to find the right stories. Parents found they spent more time looking for a story than reading to their kids.

 

The Solution

Personalizing the discovery experience

TinyTales is an app where parents can read to their children. I wanted to introduce personalization based on the reader’s interests and preferences to recommend the perfect stories.

 

The Goal

Run a modified 5-day solo design sprint

ROLE

  • UX Designer

  • Responsible for user mapping, sketching, storyboarding, prototyping, and testing throughout a 5-day design sprint.

CONSTRAINTS

  • Design for iPads and tablets

  • Focus on how the parents and kids choose a story to read

  • Discovery and reading happens in the app

Day 1

Understanding the problem and mapping the solution

Day 1 of the sprint focused on understanding the user needs and mapping out an end-to-end user experience. I synthesized TinyTale’s user research and personas to get a deeper understanding of the users I’d be designing for. Based on the information provided, I gathered the following insights:

  • Parents are looking for stories that contain life lessons or educational value, and can be finished within a certain time frame.

  • Kids will usually pick books based on the cover, but parents want to pre-read stories to make sure their kids will like it.

  • Parents look to reading reviews and getting recommendations from their friends to pick out a story.

  • Some parents read to more than one child at a time and want to make sure the stories the choose are interesting for everyone.

Through the research, I found what motivates parents. They believe reading is important for children because it helps build their confidence and is a good way to teach life lessons in a fun way. Most parents want to read stories with some sort of educational content or lesson, or have the story relate to their child’s lives at the moment. Parents also want to know the typical length of the book so they can properly choose the story to read for their bedtime schedule. However, parents are finding it difficult to find the right story to read to their children and, as a result, spending too much time in the discovery phase.

Day 2

 Sketching out the solution

LIGHTNING DEMOS

On Day 2, I completed a modified version of a lightning demo to compare competitors. I found inspiration from products like:

Spotify

Spotify is well known for their simple UI and addicting Discover Weekly playlists using their recommendation algorithm.

  • Provides in-depth, personal recommendations

  • Great use of playlists and genre tiles to enable discovery

Epic!

Epic! is a children’s storyteller app providing personalized daily reading lists based on age, grade levels, and the reader’s personal interests. Epic! integrates with classes so their reading suggestions help kids with learning retention.

  • Personalized daily reading

  • Progress tracker to build confidence

  • In-class integration with lessons (teacher supported)

Netflix

The UI of Netflix lends itself well to other mediums like story discovery. The taxonomy used to organize movies and tv shows by themes, and genres can be reused for children’s storybooks.

  • Random pick if undecided

  • Personalized recommendation

  • Preview movie/tv series

  • Categorization based on genres and personal preference

 

CRAZY 8s

Based on TinyTale’s research, I explored concepts that focused on these insights:

  • Kids are drawn in by the book covers. The designs prominently display books and categories through photo-based carousels.

  • Parents want to pre-read and review the book before making their decision. Information on a preview page gives parents the information they need to make sure the book is right for their children.

Crazy 8s sketch

For the critical screen, I ultimately chose:

  • The 2nd drawing from the top row because it offered a way to discover books that’s appealing to both kids and parents.

  • The 2nd drawing from the bottom row represents the detail screen containing relevant information. This screen answers the decision-making phase where parents decide whether the book their children chose is right for them.

The overall design I chose is Netflix-inspired and doesn’t require users to learn new interaction patterns.

 

3-PANEL SOLUTION

After deciding on the critical screen, I created a 3-panel sketch to expand on the idea.

 Day 3

Finalizing the concept

Typically, Day 3 is the phase where each member of the team presents their solution sketches, and the group decides on the winning idea. Since this is a 1-person sprint, I used this day to map the user journey with a storyboard.

STORYBOARD

The storyboarding process lays out each step of the prototype experience. In this situation, the parent and child are viewing the app together.

FOCUS AREAS

  • A loading screen to highlight and communicate a personalized selection.

  • Daily Pick, a recommended book generated from past reads and the child’s demographic and interests.

  • Personalized carousels for parents and kids who don’t connect with the Daily Pick.

  • A detail page overlay containing reviews, ratings, reading times, book length, age range, topics covered, and preview pages.

  • A celebratory page when the book is finished to encourage further reading.

 Day 4

Prototyping the experience

I spent Day 4 building a prototype to validate the solution and gather authentic responses from potential users. The goal here is to build out the flow I want to test, not the entire app experience.

“How might we help parents quickly find great books to read to their kids?”
 

  • The Home page highlights the personalized recommendation algorithm used to suggest relevant, themed story carousels.

  • The Discover page offers a traditional discovery route using categories. Users can filter their selection of books based on Age Range, Interests, Values, Genres, etc.

 
 
 

  • The Detail page displays information parents need to make a quick decision.

  • The Celebratory page offers more options to encourage further reading.

 

 Day 5

Validating the prototype

On Day 5, I tested the prototype with 5 participants who had young children or experience reading to young children. The participants completed these tasks:

  1. Browse for a book in the Home page

  2. Browse in the Discover page

  3. Review the information on the Preview page

  4. Read and finish a book

Overall, participants appreciated the Daily Pick at the top and how the books were sorted into carousels answering their preferences and needs. They felt the information presented in the preview page was helpful and even saw things that they liked (Values) and hadn’t seen elsewhere.

 
 

 The End

Reflections and learnings

  • The short duration taught me how to be critical, quickly generate ideas and make decisions, pin down the must-needs from nice-to-haves, and stay within scope.

  • One strong experience can delight users. Building one piece of the app meant I was able to build the desired experience without having to compromise my time, efforts, and the user’s needs between the goals of multiple experiences.

Previous

Breeze
Next

Branding