IS 213 -- User Interface Design & Development

ReadingTree: Persona and Task Revisions

Primary Personas

In the process of developing the scenarios, we realized that two personas had become our primary design targets: Danny and Jenny.

Julio is not a central figure because he uses the ReadingTree system in only one way--to locate books by subject. He is not likely to spend much time evaluating the quality of the individualbooks or use the interactive features to talk to other kids.

Surprisingly, Ayisha is not a primary persona either. She is very important in that she is likely to use the system frequently and the ratings and reviews she supplies will help other kids find good books. However, Ayisha will probably use the system no matter how poor the design; we think she will forgive a great deal as long as the site's contents (books and recommendations) are of high quality. The question of quality will be addressed mainly through the backend database and the collaborative filtering algorithm, although the interface (for searching and soliciting information from Ayisha to make the recommendations) will play a key role.

Jenny presents a central challenge in that she wants a lot of interactivity and she also wants the site to be cool--if it's not, she will not be caught dead using it in public, and she certainly will not take the time to submit ratings or reviews.

Danny also requires our special attention. Although, like Julio, he is focused on a single task and wants to finish as quickly as possible, he will come to the site without a clear idea of what he's seeking. The site must present him with helpful options while requiring minimal input from him. He must be able to move through the system quickly and without outside assistance from adults or other kids.

How Kids Come to ReadingTree

Ayisha learned about the site from the children's librarian who thought that Ayisha would appreciate having an extra source of book suggestions. The librarian also suggested that it would be a big help to other children if Ayisha would give feedback on the books she has read. Ayisha likes to visit the site to get ideas for new books when the librarian is helping other kids--she also likes seeing her reviews posted up for everyone to read.

Danny used ReadingTree because his teacher assigned all the kids in the class to try it out during library time. Danny now uses the site whenever he has to pick out a book for class--he does not use any of the community aspects of the system.

Jenny heard about ReadingTree from her friend Brittany, who learned out about it from her teacher. She now uses the site on her own, on a fairly regular basis, primarily to find out what's popular and to tell other kids what she has been reading.

Julio discovered the site when he typed in "How do I find good books?" as a query at Ask Jeeves. He uses the site without supervision. Julio tends to use ReadingTree to find books when he has not been able to get the information he needs at other sites online. He does not communicate with other ReadingTree users.

Decision Regarding Secondary Users

We want this site to be a kid's space where review content is by and for kids, although we do expect teachers, librarians, and parents to interact with ReadingTree when helping a child navigate the system. Adults might also visit ReadingTree on their own to listen to what kids are saying about books and to keep abreast of what books are popular. While these are valid uses of the site, because our kid-oriented goals are primary, we made a conscious decision not to design specifically for adults. However, we will include a "Parents/Teachers Information" page to explain how the system is meant to be used, describe our security policies, and offer a preview of the features.

Apart from the ReadingTree system administrators, adults do not play a role in adding books to the ReadingTree database, identifying featured books, or generating recommendations. Recommendations are generated automatically by the system's collaborative filtering algorithm. ReadingTree system administrators select new and featured books. Visitors to ReadingTree may send e-mail suggestions of books to add, feature or recommend.

Log-In Requirement

We debated about if and when to require users to sign up for a ReadingTree account. We thought about requiring users to log in before they can access any of the system's features. We also considered requiring log-in only for certain features (such as posting reviews, storing items to a bookshelf, or sending messages to other ReadingTree users). We don't want the setup to place an unreasonable burden on Danny, who is an infrequent user of a single system feature. At the same time, we would like to offer personalization and improved recommendations for the regular visitors. Our two designs reflect these different approaches and we are still trying to find a workable solution.

Privacy

Privacy requirements have been a concern since we initiated this project. We have fully reviewed the Children's Advertising Review Unit Self Regulatory Guidelines for Children's Advertising (http://www.bbb.org/advertising/caruguid.asp). We have also looked at children's chat/bulletin board sites such as FreeZone, Zeek's and Headbone to see how successful and parent-approved sites manage privacy concerns.

Our hope is to have a site where parental involvement is not absolutely required. Therefore, we will not ask for real names, e-mail addresses, street addresses, phone numbers, or any other personally identifying information. However, we will ask for gender, grade level, city and state but these would be linked only to a fictitious, user-generated ReadingTree "nickname." We are considering also asking kids to submit the name of their school but are concerned that this might compromise the child's anonymity (though it would not technically violate the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act).