Writtist

Design Process

Discovery Phase

My aunt saw an application that I designed for online tutoring and shared her problem with me. She mentioned that it was hard for her seven years old child to write and emphasized his lack of interest in writing. Considering the Nigerian school system, Children should be able to trace letters from the age of three; this is quite early but it's the structure. So we brainstormed and came up with a couple of ideas.

Interviews and Identifying Problems

While noting the ideas we got from the brainstorming session, I prepared some questions. I sent out survey questions to some parents and interviewed some face to face. I also spoke to my cousin’s lesson teacher who teaches in an elementary school and got adequate information with regards to problems faced while teaching children to write in school. From the interviews and surveys, I was able to identify similar problems and they are listed below:

Child’s lack of interest in writing
Low attention span
Struggle while holding child’s hand to aid writing
Difficulties in helping left-handed children

Research

From the information I garnered from the interviews, I did some research on the behavioral patterns of children between the ages of 4-8. I discovered that some might suffer from cases of undiagnosed Dysgraphia (a learning disability that results in unusual and distorted handwriting). In Nigeria, it’s hard to get proper diagnosis and most children are under pressure from parents and teachers to write properly. I also noted a couple of points about children within this age group:

They have limited muscular control
Some are sensitive to colors
Excessive content overwhelm and confuse them
They enjoy audio and visual feedback
They love reward system; this boosts their self-esteem.

D4CR Guide

I discovered the designing for children's rights (D4CR) guide during my research. This guide helps create awareness about children's rights when building products and services. There are ten guides but I picked three that I considered while designing this product:

Everyone can use (Right to Non-descrimination)

Give me room to explore and support my growth (Right to development)

Use communication I can relate to ( Right to information)

Similar Products

I did some research on existing products and discovered iTrace and iWW. Both products teach children how to write better. I compared the approaches taken to solve the identified problem and discovered features to enhance the product.

Design Solutions

Colors

While researching, I discovered that colors such as blue, violet, green, and gray promote calmness in children. So I made sure to use a mix of these colors in the style guide.

Typography

For the typeface, I went with Mulish and Coming soon because of the playful feel and how letters are arranged.

Visual elements

I used cartoon characters for the design to strengthen the connection between children.

Home Screen

The home screen contains sections named letters, numbers, and words where children can practice writing. The icons and words are outlined so they are clearer and easy to understand. I also included a parent's space where parents can monitor the activities of children on the product.

Letters Screen

I designed this section for letters of the alphabet and made it colorful and attractive. Children can practice how to write letters and enjoy a visually pleasing interface.

Tracing Screen

This is the screen that displays where children can trace. It has a letter case feature that allows users to pick whether they want to trace uppercase or lower case letters.
There is also a hand orientation feature to assist both left-handed and right; parents can assist children in choosing which they are comfortable with.

Parents Section

This screen is for parents’ access to their section. Once, they type in the correct answer, a screen with features such as changing typography, monitoring children's activities and language is displayed.

What I Learnt

I discovered that designing for kids is challenging as their cognitive ability to reason, infer, and make connections is still developing.
I had to do a lot of research before defining the color style and typography; I learnt that yellow represents warmth, clarity, and optimism while purple represents royalty, confidence. and wisdom.
Children enjoy instant feedback. While designing for kids, it's important to include feedback as they keep trying things until they get a response.
Considering Parents; It's important to consider parents when designing products in which kids are the target audience because they are the superusers.