ReadingTree Second Interactive Prototype

We received improvement recommendations from the heuristic evaluation performed on our system in two ways: a summary discussion of the most pressing and obvious problems and a list of every heuristic violation identified. We addressed both sets of violations in the same vein.

My Bookshelf. Our original design made it difficult for a user to find ers* own Bookshelf and impossible for erm to make any modifications to it (e.g. remove books, rate books on it, change username or password, etc.) To address this, we added a fifth "bookshelf" navigation icon to the persistent navigation bar, which provides access to a user's bookshelf at all times once ee's logged in. This page also provides information about user recognition and rewards (e.g. points earned to date) and will be further expanded in future iterations. (TraveLite Comments 1, 2, and 3)

Book recommendations for new users. We have struggled with how much to emphasize the process required for a new user to get book recommendations (rating a minimum number of books or answering poll questions) because although it is, in our opinion, a very cool feature, it is NOT central to any of our personas' goals. Over-emphasizing the steps just clutters the interface and could even make it more difficult for our personas to achieve their goals. So rather than offering the process up front (for instance, during the signup/account creation process), a book suggestions request that returns zero hits results in a short description of what's needed for good suggestions and links to rate books or answer polls. We also explain the book recommendation process and provide feedback to users for their recommendations. (TraveLite Comments 4 and 5)

Aesthetics. Because our system is intended as quasi-entertainment, and because we're trying to reach an audience with limited attention spans, weaned on video games and interactivity, we wanted to keep our pages interesting. They are admittedly full of information and icons competing for attention. However, we feel that a busy page, where a user could gradually "discover" what the Tree has to offer, is more suitable for our audience and their goals than a strictly linear, step-by-step, task-oriented design. (We hope that usability testing will bear this out.) However, we modified where the page design was needlessly cluttered or complex (such as the layout of Book Information pages). (TraveLite Comments 9 and 10) We also worked to reduce the size of the pages and provide clear but unobtrusive navigation and search result cues. (TraveLite Comments 6, 7, and 8)

Too much drilling/not enough information. We reduced the number of clicks needed to find the "essentials" of a book (such as grade level, page number and average rating) on the book information page. (TraveLite Comment 11)

Error prevention, explanation and correction. We designed our forms to be easy to complete and hope that we minimized the possibility for errors. We have inspected the site to be sure that error prevention and explanation is supported; we could still do more to support error correction. For example, during the sign-up process, if a user enters an invalid username, the system should prompt the user to re-enter only the problematic information, rather than displaying a blank form.

Further changes are addressed and responded to (with either our solution or our rebuttal) item by item in the attached Excel spreadsheet.

Other Changes

We also implemented or partially implemented certain changes in design and functionality that were left over from the first prototype and that were not addressed by the heuristic evaluation. These are:

Registration-free site browsing. All site features are now visible to non-members, but they are not able to participate in rating, reviewing, and posting. A link prompts them to sign in or become a member to complete those tasks.

Printable lists of search results, bookshelf and book recommendations. This has been implemented for Search Results and Bookshelf, but has not yet been added to Book Recommendations.

Scalable lists of search results and book recommendations. This has been implemented for Search Results. The first 10 books are displayed, with an option to see "More" (or "Previous") on additional pages if the search results are greater than 10. We also reduced book cover image size. Book Suggestions has been limited to a maximum of 10 books displayed per suggestion, without an option to see more, so a scalable display is no longer necessary.

Log out. This has been implemented on the home page, but still needs to be made available throughout the site.

Prototype Overview

Interact with the most recent prototype of ReadingTree.org

Overview of the User Interface (with Links to Screen Shots)

As in the first iteration, our web site has four main sections, accessible via icons in the main menu bar from anywhere within the site: Home, Find a Book, Treehouse, and What's New. For members, a fifth main section -- Maintain Bookshelf -- is accessible via the main menu bar.

Home. From this page, a user can move quickly and easily to perform any of our personas' major tasks--finding a book, talking about a book, or finding out what's new. This page provides a menu of the options, allows registered users to sign in, and directs new users in how to sign up. It also links to information on ReadingTree's privacy policy,contact and copyright information. All of the icons and the main headings in the text menu are hyperlinks.

Find a Book. From this page, a child has 4 ways to look for books: by a word in the title, a part of the author's name, the first letter of the author or title (for those who have trouble typing or spelling), or the kind of book. The "kind of book" icons are all clickable. In the upper right corner of the screen appears the fiction/non-fiction selector, which is currently not operational; in the next iteration, this "narrow search" feature will be accessible from every search type as well as from the results screen. When a search is run, a new page displays the results, formatted similarly for title, author and kind of book searches, and slightly different for initial letter searches.

The child might also opt to have the system suggest a book; the collaborative filtering algorithm uses ratings and "What's New" poll responses to improve a user's recommendations. To receive suggestions, a user simply clicks on the "suggest some books" link, also available from the "What's New" page. This brings him or her to a list of recommendations, with the option to rate the item or add it to his or her Bookshelf, which stores information about a user's favorite books and books he or she wants to read (similar to the Wishlist at Amazon)

Throughout the site, any time a user clicks on a cover image, the book information page is displayed. In addition to the basic book details, such as grade level, number of pages, and synopsis, the system also displays ReadingTree-specific information, such as the average rating by ReadingTree users, the Nicknames of users who currently have the book on their Bookshelves, and any user-submitted reviews. From the Book Information page, users have the option to rate or review the book or add it to their Bookshelf. Here, as elsewhere at the site, if you click on another user's name, you are brought to that user's Bookshelf.

Treehouse. This is the direct kid-to-kid interaction area of ReadingTree. Children may communicate in two ways: asynchronously via a threaded bulletin board or in real-time through moderated chats (offered only during limited hours of the day, for safety reasons). At the bulletin board, the main discussions are established by the ReadingTree administrators. Within each discussion, any member may post or reply to a topic. To increase the clarity and conversationality of the threaded discussion, we added the convention "username (to username): " when replying to a message, rather than quoting the message verbatim. Messages are date- and time-stamped. User nicknames displayed on the message board connect to that user's Bookshelf.

The Treehouse also lists the nicknames of all ReadingTree members, as well as those who are currently active on the site.

What's New. This section contains the most freqently changing content at the site. ReadingTree staff will regularly update the content in the "Featured Book" section of this page. "Member of the Week" is chosen at random and will likely eventually be tied to member reqrds and recognition. The "What's Hot/What's Not" reflects aggregated book ratings by ReadingTree users, dynamically generated each time the page is returned. The featured poll gathers information about users to improve the automated book recommendations. After a user answers a poll, ee is brought to a window to thank the user for answering and to display the results of the poll so far.

Changes To Be Included in Next Iteration
Following are previously discussed changes planned for the next iteration. We delayed their implementation because they were not part of the heuristic violations.

1. Member rewards page. This is a crucial ingredient in our collaborative filtering system, as we wish to encourage participation by every user who visits the site. We plan to recognize members who submit reviews, ratings, and message board postings. We are finalizing the details of a recognition and reward structure. See sketches.

2. Increase interactivity. Our interviews, lo-fi testing, and competitive analysis all point to the same conclusion: kids want to interact with websites and they want it to be fun. We have worked towards this end with the ratings, chat and message board. We have also investigated adding puzzles or coloring pages (e.g. from the Harry Potter website, if copyright permission can be obtained). These are not central to our persona's goals so we opted to exclude them from this iteration.

3. Mascot or changing design motif. Mascots are a regular features of kid-oriented sites (Zinger at Bookhive, Rex Reader at BookAdventure), designed to make sites more appealing to children and perhaps to help establish the branding of the site. We considered also adding a changeable design motif--some children's sites change the look of their site on a monthly or quarterly basis. In the next iteration we might include on the right side of the navigation bar a tree icon that changes with the seasons.

* In this writeup, we use the following gender-neutral pronouns: ers, erm, and ee.