EDTECH — READING & / 2023
Stop guessing your reading level, Start your guided journey
Project
English Reading Platform That Delights Both Children and Parents
Today's Book is a tailored reading platform for 5-12 year olds, designed to foster independent English reading habits. As Lead Product Designer, I spearheaded the beta launch, overseeing both brand and product design.
Role
Lead product designer
Timeline
Jan 2023 - Mar 2023
Deployed in Mar 2023
Team
2 Product Designer
1 Product Manager
1 Project Manager
3 Developers
Overview
Problem
Children struggled to independently select and read English books, often requiring parental assistance. Parents lacked visibility into their children's learning progress and effectiveness of the service.
Objective
Foster joyful reading habits and a sense of achievement in learning
Enable independent use without parental help
Build parent trust through clear learning progress indicators
Key result
90%
completion rate for
4-month course (240 books)
96%
User satisfaction
Full Launch
Beta Service to
Understanding the problem
How can we help children enjoy reading English books on their own? 🧒🏻
I'm not sure if my child is learning properly 🤷🏻♀️
Looking at the VOC (Voice of Customer), we found difficulties in analysing children's independent reading progress. From the parents' perspective, there was concern about accurately tracking their child's learning progress.
➕ Key Policy Changes
The product policy was changed to recommend books matching the user's level after conducting a level test.
Importance level test score increase
Added new English skill types to accurately diagnose the child's level,
as the existing level test only covered vocabulary, reading, and grammar
Need for UI that reflects new question types
❗️Interesting Issues discovered through research
" My child couldn't focus on using the mouse, so they asked me for help "
The level test was PC-only with small UI elements, making it challenging for children to
complete independently. This led to high dependency on parental assistance and
lower completion rates.
Competitive research
Analysis of Children's Educational Services and Games
I conducted competitor research based on two criteria to analyse child-friendly UI/UX and gamification elements. The goal was to look for elements that children can use independently and find features that could be applied to learning.
Insights
📖 Services for Children Require Large Touch Areas and Multiple Colours
Understanding that children's small motor skills are still developing, I found that button sizes need to be larger and various colour and graphic-based UI elements need to be considered in child-oriented services. While the existing level test was only available in PC environments, I noticed that children had difficulty controlling the mouse or clicking small buttons, and they were more comfortable with touch-based interactions than PC.
📅 How About Making Reading Game-like?
If we apply gamification UX like goal setting at the start, interaction, rewards, and reward systems, we could increase motivation and engagement.
Children showed excitement with the gaming UI 👾
Children love collecting stickers and stamps 🌟
📊 Parents Want to Check Their Children's Performance
Without a separate parent portal, parents had to share their children's login screen. How about creating a unified page where parents can track and manage all learning-related progress?
Problem Definition
Current UX/UI lacks accessibility and child-friendliness
Level test UI elements are too small for children to complete independently
Parents lack tools to track their children's learning progress
Hypotheses and Solutions
H1
If we provide intuitive, gamified UI and visual feedback in the "Today's Book" feature, children will voluntarily engage in reading.
S1
Visually present achievement goals and learning stamps
H2
If we improve the level test with child-friendly UI/UX, children will be able to complete the test independently without parental assistance.
S2
Design user-friendly level test UX and provide
H3
If we provide a centralised parent dashboard to monitor learning progress, it will make children's learning management more efficient.
S3
Add a parent dashboard page
Solution 1
Today’s Book main page
To strengthen motivation and continuity in reading, I applied child-friendly and appropriate UI and gamification design based on children's age characteristics. Additionally, I added a stamp page that clearly shows learning goals and rewards.
Applied age-appropriate friendly UI and animations
Collect completion stamps to boost learning achievement
Foster student-teacher relationships through personalised messages
from teachers (Available with teacher subscription plans)
Solution 2
Level Test UX/UI Improvement
Goal: Enable children to complete the level test independently
Improve usability through child-appropriate UI size and intuitive interactions including sound and animation features.
AS-IS
PC-only access and small buttons
TO-BE
Usability Testing with Children
Can children complete the test independently? 🤓
I conducted usability testing of the level test prototype with five children (ages 5-12) of internal employees.
Results showed 100% independent completion rates
across all devices - PC, tablet, and mobile.
Solution 3
Parents Dashboard
Goal: Design a dashboard where parents can intuitively track today's book and child's learning progress
Parents can check class schedules for products with added teacher consultation
Easily understand children's learning status through dashboard and daily/weekly reports
I focused on improving development efficiency by utilising the existing design system and reusable components for faster deployment.
Impact & User feedback
Impact
90%
completion rate for
4-month course (240 books)
96%
User satisfaction
Full Launch
Beta Service to
We initially recruited 100 users for the beta service, and all spots were sold out. We provided 3 books weekly over a 4-month course for a total of 240 books, achieving a 90% course completion rate. Furthermore, in the subsequent user satisfaction survey, we achieved a 96% satisfaction rate.
As a result, we were able to successfully launch the new service from beta.
User Review
“ My child who used to refuse English now enjoys learning it! ”
It's become a daily habit. As a working mom, I love being able to check their progress through the app. The data analysis shows both strengths and areas for improvement. Just by reading three books daily, they've completed over 130 books in a month. They're so proud, thinking they're an English genius!
Source: Readning& community
With Today's book, she gets star stamps after completing all 5 steps of Today's Book's three books. Working through all steps has notably improved their pronunciation. She's now motivated by their teacher's messages and can confidently read three books independently each day.
Source: Naver blog
Since starting Today's Book, my child's reading time and book count have increased significantly! It's so convenient - just one mention of reading and they're ready to go. The level-matched books made it much easier and more enjoyable for them!
Source: Reading& community _ comment
What I learned
Impact of Child-Centric Design
I realised how UX/UI that delivers motivation and achievement feedback significantly influences children's learning continuity and satisfaction
Seeing children's positive feedback and photos of them using the service, I recognised how design can make learning more engaging and enjoyable for young learners
Effective Project Leadership
Managing high-priority designs under tight deadlines, I led a collaborative process with a support designer through mutual feedback. I kept the project on schedule through effective stakeholder management, and successfully championed unplanned level test UI/UX improvements, ensuring rapid deployment by optimising development efficiency.
Cross-functional Collaboration
I led Reading&'s brand identity workshop with 10 non-design colleagues. Despite initial challenges in aligning diverse perspectives, the process crystallised our service's direction. The workshop successfully united stakeholders across Business Planning, Sales, CS, and Product teams around our service's value. I witnessed the transformative power of moving forward with a shared vision.
LONDON, UK BASED
PRODUCT DESIGNER
Gigi Kim
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