IS 213 -- User Interface Design & Development

ReadingTree: Interviews - Persona Development (Parent)

For Kids:

1. What do you like to do after school/ on the weekends?
Draw, ride his scooter, read books, watch TV, hang out with friends, play with Digimon cards (Does he ever use a computer?) Plays games, goes on the Internet to look for Digimon cards on eBay, draws on Photoshop. Has started to use the computer for homework

2. When do you read books?
He reads himself to sleep every night, sometimes he reads during the day, but mostly at night between say 8.30 and 9.30. He gets assigned reading from school and keeps a log of the reading he does at home, so sometimes his bedtime reading counts for school.

3. What kind of books do you like to read? Do you like stories or facts better (fiction or non-fiction)?
All kinds of stuff, Harry Potter of course, also Greek mythology, science stuff (like dinosaurs and how machines work). Boy novels, like the Captain Underpants series.

4. What's your favorite book? How did you find it originally?
Doesn't have a favorite book. Probably Harry Potter, but we just cleaned out a bunch of juvenile literature around Christmas time, and he held onto a bunch of stuff, reference, novels… He like magazines -- reads computer magazines.

5. When you pick out books yourself how do you do it?
The family goes to the library and he'll just go to the general section of the library and browse. He also hears word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and other kids, which he may or may not like so much. He doesn't care for the Redwall series. He's also sometimes assigned readings for school, and the teacher in that case will hand out the books and the kids return them afterwards. Sometimes the family goes shopping or he has a gift certificate and he'll browse.

6. What do you think is the best way to find a book you'll like?
Didn't ask.

7. For school projects/ book lists, how do you pick out a book?
See number 5.

8. Once you find a book you think you'll like, how do you get it?
See number 5

9. What makes a book interesting to you?
Didn't ask

10. Do you ever ask for books for your birthday? How do you know what to ask for?
Specifically asked for Harry Potter when the new one was coming out.

11. Do you ever go shopping for books with your parents?
See number 5

12. Do you ever use a computer? Where? What do you use it for?
Doesn't really use a computer at school. Even the library doesn't really have one. (Well, I'm not sure about that, they just improved the library). -- see number 1

13. What's the hardest thing about using a computer?
Didn't ask

14. What do you like best about using a computer?
Didn't ask

15. Do you ever use the Internet? What are your favorite websites?
Generally he only goes online to "window-shop" for Digimon cards

16. Do you only IM/chat with friends you already know? If no: How do you meet new friends online? Do you always talk to the same people online? Do you look at people's profiles?
He doesn't really email at all. Ellen (daughter, 13) has a hotmail account that gets so full that it's hard to use, but she uses that a little. Neither really "chat." Neither of them are really online a whole lot.

17. Do you play video games? If so which are your favorites? What do you like about video games?
He likes Doom and FirePong, some FPS games, which we're not thrilled with, but we don't eliminate. We don't buy too many; we get demo games from MacAddict and he usually plays them till he maxes out at whatever level the demo provides, and he's satisfied. But he's not really a video game addict.

18. How old are you?
Robby is 10, Ellen is 13, I didn't ask Lincoln how old he was!

For Proxies:

1. What is your involvement with children? Didn't ask, but he is a parent

2. Do you recommend books for them?
I don't really recommend books to Robby. If I read about something in the Chronicle kids' section or something, then I might see if he's interested. But if he sounded interested we'd probably just go buy it.

3. How do you choose which books to recommend? Do you recommend different books for different kids or a few books to all of them?
Didn't ask

4. Do you know kids who like to read? Do they like to use computers?
Didn't ask

5. What problems do you see kids having with computers? What do they ask you for help with? What do they seem to really like?
If Robby is doing anything really complicated on the computer, I'll supervise. Partly he understands that, for instance, Photoshop is not a kid's program and if it doesn't look like it's working, it's probably something he did, so he has a higher level of tolerance for that. With kids' computer games, he has lower expectations and he gets crankier if they don't work

6. Do you know kids who use the Internet? What websites do they mention as their favorites?
Didn't ask

7. Do you know kids who play video games? What are their favorites? Are there video games that they don't like to use?
See 17, etc.

8. Do you know kids who use educational software? What do you think might motivate a kid to use educational software? What would turn a kid off using it?
We don't really buy educational software. Some of the games they have are pretty educational, like this one Rube Goldberg-type game where they construct something where the balloon goes up, the monkey comes down … the physics are pretty good. But we don't really want to mix learning with the computer. He already gets enough computer time, he doesn't need to spend any more time.

9. Do the kids you know go to the library regularly? (At school, on their own) How do they pick out books there? Do they ask the librarian? Do they ask other kids?
See above

Other notes from Lincoln, since he's somewhat familiar with our service: Main concern is in the amount of "stuff out there." Books are expensive and there are many many books released each year, so valuable, accurate reviews would be very welcome -- parents would like it too. It might also be good -- you know Robby didn't like the Redwall stuff; it might be good for a kid who did like it to have a chance to defend it, start a dialogue about it.