REiD
A mobile application on helping children with dyslexia
OVERVIEW
With the development of technology, more and more diseases could be cured, but dyslexia is still existing as a kind of disease that could not be avoided and required for long term treatments. The earlier the treatments start, the better the result would be. However, it is common that even parents realize that their children have dyslexia, they do not know how to correctly help them. Therefore, these parents and children are requiring a platform to help them to improve this situation.
“REiD” is an APP to help children with dyslexia. “REiD” has installed functions about providing reading materials, audio reading function to help children to read, and rewarding children for their efforts. With those functions, children with dyslexia would increase their interests in reading and better adapt to reading in their future.
Project Type
Personal Project
Time
Apr - Jun 2020 (6 weeks)
Role
User research, Competitor Analysis, Wireframing, UI & UX Design
CONTEXT
What is Dyslexia?
Dyslexia, also known as reading disorder, is characterized by trouble with reading despite normal intelligence.
Occurs in 10% of children.
Possible Causes of Dyslexia is…
Brain damage
Genetic
Stroke
Problem may include difficulties in…
Learning to read
Learning to speak
Learning to write
Why is it a problem that needs to be solved?
Future Affect
A student who fails to read adequately in 1st grade has a 90% probability of reading poorly in high school.
Parental Concerns
RESEARCH & IDEATION
Competitor Analysis
For the understanding of novels, words might not be the most important element. By using background music, illustrations, and interactive games, users would start to understand the scenario. They could also use audio to read the context for them. Therefore, a more clear meaning of the novel would be gained by the users, and a more attractive reading experience would be provided;
Difficult parts of the articles could be marked and reviewed after reading that article;
Color, background, and users’ characters could be customized in order to increase the attraction of apps.
Literature Review
Conclude from the articles that I have reviewed:
Auditory-perceptual skill and visual-perceptual skill are strongly related to reading comprehension;
Increasing letter spacing could help children with dyslexia to increase their reading ability;
Background music could ease children’s tension during reading. Besides, music practicing could enhance reading comprehension;
Competitor Analysis;
Video games help dyslexia children through attracting their attention.
Therefore, we could add these elements into our design for the app, in order to achieve our goal of helping children with dyslexia.
How to Design for Children
Primary Research
4 years old girls’ father
37 years old, High school teacher
“Reading is just so important these days. ”
Expectation: I want something to help her focus on reading and is not too distracted.
Pain Points: Too much games in the reading might distract her from the reading material.
Will
6 years old boy’s father
42 years old, Writer
“I don’t want my child to be judged by having dyslexia in the school. ”
Expectation: My child could be praised or encouraged when he is reading but his mom and I could not be there for him.
Pain Points: Sometimes, the materials might be too hard for her.
John
5 years old girls’ mother
32 years old, Accountant
“I want my child to feel less stressful during reading. ”
Expectation: My child could find books in the areas that she is interested in, and then she might be able to build her confidence in reading.
Pain Points: She might start playing the phone if she is using an app as a tool.
Lily
Painpoints
Before
After
We have used affinity diagram to collect and arrange the key words that have appeared in the interview. After that, we could use these key words to form our design guidelines based on costumers’ expectations and demands.
Solution
In this part, I summarize customers’ expectations and pain points together. In order to not only find the relationship between the expectations and pain points, but also form potential design guidelines.
Use Multi-media to present the context of the article;
Limited distractions and proper supervision;
Explanation for words and sentences;
Attractive interaction.
DEFINING REiD
Design Brief
Reid can help children aged from 4-8yrs with dyslexia increase the interests toward reading and decrease their anxiety toward reading. This app is using the animated character to guide children through reading, white noise and vibration to immerse children into the reading atmosphere, and rewarding system to increase children’s interests toward reading.
Storyboard
APP DESIGN
Information Architecture
Wireframe
Visual System
REFLECTION
REiD is my first project for interaction design. I decided to focus on children with dyslexia because I want to use design as a tool to help others, especially children with disabilities. The most important part for this project is to find target customers and data information from them through interviewing. Since for a lot of times, parents would not even recognize that their children might be suffering from dyslexia.
I have also learnt that even small decisions in design might be produced after prudent consideration of designers. Steady literature reviews and research are being requested before making the final decision.
This project has raised my interests toward social changes and medical tools. In the future, I would like to focus more on social innovations, and I want to learn more about how to implement different media for the more efficient delivery of concepts and solutions.