IS 213 -- User Interface Design & Development

ReadingTree: Competitive Analysis - Appendix

Here is the full commentary on each site and how it helps (or does not help) each persona achieve his or her goals. This commentary is followed by a matrix showing how each system does (or does not) support the specific tasks.

BookHive (site) -- Jump to analysis
World Of Reading (site) -- Jump to analysis
Just for Kids Who Love Books (site) -- Jump to analysis
BookForager (site) -- Jump to analysis

Bookhive

Summary: Bookhive mainly allows children to read book reviews and submit book reviews about books they've read. However the search capabilities and screen design are executed much more gracefully. The font is large and readable, the graphics simple but effective, and the screen layout uncluttered. The site uses a bumblebee mascot named Zinger to tie together the different features. Bookhive's home page features "Zinger's Choice"--a book cover image along with a quote from a child's review. Each time you revisit the home page, a new book is displayed. In addition to book reviews, Bookhive also offers activities such as the Harry Potter Quiz, coloring pages, and links to kid-friendly websites.

ReadingTree should seek to emulate the simplicity of the interface (few results displayed at one time, large cover images, simple search form, accessible subject headings) and consider adding a mascot/tour guide.

Ayisha's goals:
--Find books she enjoys. Bookhive would let Ayisha do focused searches by author, title, illustrator, book audience, and reading categories. Furthermore, she can browse by "Reading Interest Categories," which is a mix between subject headings (e.g. adventure, historical) and book types (e.g.read aloud, award winners). Finally, in some places, books are accompanied by related-book suggestions ("If you liked this one, you might also like this other one") which would allow Ayisha to branch out from books she has already read and liked.
--Find lots of books that she hasn't already read. There are at least 325 books in the Bookhive database, so she will probably be able to locate a book she has not read before. However, the site seeks to serve a wide range of ages--from babies to sixth grade, so only a certain number of these books are likely to be appropriate for Ayisha.
--Not feel stupid when using the computer. Bookhive's interface is easy to use, in terms of navigation and form completion. However, it is not clear how the results are organized and that might be troubling when there is a large set of results to sift through.

Danny's goals:
--Find books to satisfy school requirements as quickly as possible. The subject browsing mechanism would probably work well for Danny. Within any of the subject categories, he can opt to narrow selections by book audience--this would allow him to limit results to books on a primary reading level. Also, he would probably fiind information on book length and illustrations very helpful.
--Not feel stupid. The simple interface should not present Danny with any problems.
--Not let other people know about his troubles with reading. There is no direct interaction with other children or adults so Bookhive supports this goal.

Jenny's goals:
--Find books for school -- Supported as described above for Ayisha's "find books" goal.
--Find what's brand new or forthcoming. Not supported, unless a new review is also coincidentally of a new book.
--Spend time with friends. Not supported. Kids may respond to others' reviews by posting their own but apart from that, there is no interaction between kids.
--Do something that friends think is cool. Again, if Jenny post reviews, and her friends read them and post also, Bookhive could support this goal. However, like JFK, this site does not facilitate her friends' finding her reviews.

Julio's goals:
--Find books for information as quickly as possible. Supported through the subject headings along the left side and lower edge of the screen.
--Be independent in finding the information he wants to know. The site seems geared towards younger kids like Julio. He is likely to be successful in his quest, although Dewey Decimal numbers are not provided.

World of Reading (WoR)

Summary: World of Reading is designed to encourage kids around the world to read stories by others and write their own. The site consists of three sections: "Book Reviews" (where kids can read and submit reviews), "Wired Books" (where kids can directly access complete books available online at other sites), and "Reading and Writing Sites on the Web" (a list of sites providing further information on reading, writing, book award winners, and libraries). No login is required, and the site asks that children submit reviews under direct adult supervision (the kid is required to put in a adult's name and e-mail address in order to submit a review). WoR allows kids to search by "kinds of books" (subjects with descriptive titles that are explained in further and good detail once accessed), "kid locations" (by the country and location of kid reviewers, in order to see what the kids in Australia are reading for example), subject (using a search engine which wasn't working when I tried it), and author (through either the aforementioned search engine or by sorting a list in "kind of books" by author).

Ayisha's goals:
--Find books she enjoys -- WoR's "kinds of books" and "kid locations" search offer Ayisha two ways to browse through unfamiliar titles depending on whether she's looking for a type of book or ideas from what other kids are reading.
--Find lots of books that she hasn't already read -- WoR has hundreds of books and kids can add to that number by reviewing a previously un-reviewed book. Even a dedicated reader like Ayisha could find some titles she hasn't read.
--Not feel stupid when using the computer -- WoR has simple and clear navigation, making it easy for kids to select and choose new activities without having to use the "back" button.

Danny's goals:
--Find books to satisfy school requirements as quickly as possible -- Since Danny can pick books by subject it should be easy for him to find something interesting, unfortunately since no reading grade level information is given it may be difficult for him to tell right away if the book is appropriate.
--Not feel stupid -- WoR's navigation uses both words and pictures so Danny doesn't have to depend exclusively on reading to determine his location or get elsewhere in the site. In addition, kids write all the reviews so they tend to be short, and use grade appropriate language (one caveat - some of the reviewers are foreign and though all of the reviews are in English some may use words or phrases that he's not familiar with).
--Not let other people know about his troubles with reading -- Unless Danny submits an review that confesses his difficulties, there's no way for others to know. WoR staff checks reviews but they say they do not edit the body of the review - Danny may be less likely to submit something if he thinks he may misspell something and other kids will laugh.

Jenny's goals:
--Find books for school -- Jenny can search for a book using subject, title or author, allowing her to find a book she already knows or discover one on her own.
--Find what's brand new or forthcoming -- WoR does not group books by publication date. Unless a kid indicates this information in an individual review there is no way WoR could provide Jenny with this information.
--Spend time with friends -- Since kids do not communicate with each other except through their reviews WoR does not support this goal of Jenny's
--Do something that friends think is cool -- Jenny can search for reviews by kid and school locations so she could tell if other kids from school are using WoR. Reviews from one school are sorted by name and age so other kids could see what she has to say - as long as there are no other Jenny's her age! One problem - Reviews are posted 2-3 weeks after they are submitted and Jenny wouldn't like not being able to see her words posted immediately.

Julio's goals:
--Find books for information as quickly as possible -- WoR sorts books by general subject but for Julio will still have to scan lists to determine if they have any books on his highly specific interest. Subject categories are broad which may also cause problems - would books on Native American kachina dolls be under folklore, religion, multi-cultural, or mystic?
--Be independent in finding the information he wants to know -- Though it may take searching a few areas, since all books are sorted by subject type (there's no entry for it on the review the kid submits - I assume it is added later by site managers) Julio should be able to find if the site has any books in his topic area.

Just for Kids Who Love Books (JFK)

Summary: This site is primarily a vehicle for children to read book reviews and submit book reviews about books they've read. The submission process for reviews is worth emulating, in its method of 'pre-formatting' the reviews, but the site is not laid out in any way to encourage the reading of other kids' reviews. The only way to find a book is by title, which discourages all of our personas' search preferences. JFK does not support any contact between children, nor does it protect "real-life" identity by asking for pseudonyms or user names. However, it is getting kids to participate at least in reviewing books; I estimate the site to have around 450 child-posted reviews. It's not clear to me what the motivation for posting is, except that new reviews are "featured" each month, which may appeal to the kids who want fame and exposure. There's not much else here to borrow in our design decisions.

Ayisha's goals:
--Find books she enjoys -- JFK allows kids to look for books by title and series. It provides links to outside sources on the book, such as Scholastic or Yahooligans! among other independent sites, which may or may not contain information such as synopses, reviews, other kids' comments and so on. Ayisha would not be able to make connections between books she's already read and books she might be likely to enjoy through author, subject or reviews accessible by title from the front page. Under Read Reviews, it's possible to search for reviews by title and series.
--Find lots of books that she hasn't already read -- JFK only includes 68 different book titles/series with links to more information. There is not an apparent way for a child to add or suggest another title. The book reviews are not related to the book titles in any way. The reviews are organized by title, so it might be possible for Ayisha to scan the alphabetical list for titles she isn't familiar with.
--Not feel stupid when using the computer -- JFK has hints like "After clicking below [submit review], you will come to a page that may not make too much sense. It's okay. Don't worry about it. I will have received your review okay." which could really be avoided by fixing the submission feedback so it makes sense. Graphics and fonts are scary and hard to look at, especially the evil spinning heart.

Danny's goals:
--Find books to satisfy school requirements as quickly as possible -- JFK doesn't fill this goal at all, since really the only way to find a book is to already know the title, which it is unlikely that Danny does
--Not feel stupid -- see above for feeling stupid about the computer. Since there aren't any "objective" details about the books (such as page length, synopsis or book excerpts) to temper the children's subjective reviews, Danny may feel intimidated by the reading level of kids his age or younger.
--Not let other people know about his troubles with reading -- There's not any direct interaction with other kids, so Danny's secret is safe

Jenny's goals:
--Find books for school -- If Jenny had a book in mind, she may be able to find reviews of it by browsing the title page. Otherwise, this site does not facilitate the discovery of a book whose title is unknown.
--Find what's brand new or forthcoming -- Not supported, unless a new review is also coincidentally of a new book
--Spend time with friends -- Not supported. There is no direct interaction between kids.
--Do something that friends think is cool -- If Jenny posts reviews, and her friends read them and post also, JFK could potentially support this goal. However, it does not facilitate her friends' finding her reviews (e.g. See all reviews by Jenny).

Julio's goals:
--Find books for information as quickly as possible -- Since it's not searchable by subject, Julio will find this site essentially useless.
--Be independent in finding the information he wants to know -- See above. JFK does not support Julio's goals.

Book Forager (BF)

Summary: Book Forager (BF) is a book recommendation site designed for adults. Using drop-down sliding bars with corresponding changing images, users indicate the position of their desired book on up to four scales, and plot/character/setting ratings, and BF returns a ranked list of suggestions. Reviews are pre-provided by BF staff, users cannot contribute their own. There is no mechanism to suggest new books for review/inclusion.

Ayisha's goals:
--Find books she enjoys -- BF ranks books on 12 categories and also allows for specific designation of character, plot and setting - Ayisha can specifically designate what she's looking for and find something like it. This site is well suited for finding books for pleasure reading.
--Find lots of books that she hasn't already read -- A large number of results are returned for each query, all including a link to "more like this" with some also containing suggestions for other books within the body of the review.
--Not feel stupid when using the computer -- The sliding bars are easy to use, and have both the ranges in words (Optimistic/ Pessimistic) and images (a box on the left changes from a sunny day to a rainy one). She can select a book based on one to four parameters and one of the "further choices" - if she tried to select more the system won't let her (which could be confusing) though error messages did not seem to be returned no matter how strange the combination of traits selected.

Danny's goals:
--Find books to satisfy school requirements as quickly as possible -- Depending on the assignment some of the parameters might be helpful in book selection (book length, character, plot, or setting selection) but in general BF would not help Danny easily select a book to satisfy school requirements.
--Not feel stupid -- BF is pretty easy to use and Danny may like selecting books based on what type of story he wants in general rather than other specific books or authors.
--Not let other people know about his troubles with reading -- Other than selecting traits to base a recommendation there is no direct interaction with the system, so no one needs to know Danny's problem. The images on the sliding bars (see Ayisha, above) may help Danny figure out some of the long descriptive words on the sliding bars.

Jenny's goals:
--Find books for school -- Depending on the assignment some of the parameters might be helpful in book selection (book length, character, plot, or setting selection) but in general BF would not help Jenny easily select a book for school.
--Find what's brand new or forthcoming -- BF doesn't display new books separately and does not support this goal of Jenny's.
--Spend time with friends -- Since users cannot submit reviews, BF wouldn't allow any interaction between Jenny and her friends (although they may have fun gathering around the computer and looking up all the books that have a lot of sex or something).
--Do something that friends think is cool -- Jenny can't interact with her friends using BF so unless they think simply using the site is cool it doesn't support this goal.

Julio's goals:
--Find books for information as quickly as possible -- BF has no subject search so it doesn't support this goal of Julio's.
--Be independent in finding the information he wants to know -- Since BF has no subject search he'll still have to ask or further research and recommendations it returns - this system doesn't support this goal of Julio's.

Footnote on Book Recommender Systems for Adults

There are currently no book recommender systems designed for children, but last semester we conducted a usability study of Amazon, RatingZone, and Sleeper. What we learned about the preferences of adults using recommender systems will inform the design of ReadingTree's system. Here's a high-level summary of our findings:

Adults in the study liked:

• Using a graduated rating scale, as at Sleeper, to be able to express nuanced opinions, as opposed to a simple binary decision of liked it/didn't like it.
• Seeing the book covers with the recommendations.
• Knowing what other customers/visitors think about books.
• Being surprised--coming across titles that they would not have heard of from friends or family members.
• Supplying enough information to feel that the recommendations can be trusted.

Adults in the study did not like:

• Having to page through a standard list of books and providing lots of ratings in order to receive recommendations
• Simplistic recommendations-if participants indicated that they enjoyed one Stephen King book, they did not want to receive a list of books by Stephen King as recommendations.
• Having to navigate to read information about a book--they want the recommendation list to provide enough information so that they can decide whether they are interested in a particular title without having to click a lot.

For more information on the results of my study, please see the paper, "Benchmarking Recommender Systems."