My Online Writer’s Notebook is a website focused on organizing and leading students through the narrative writing process. The site will start by leading students through the pre-writing process; guiding them to create a story map and illustrations to express their ideas before drafting their story. After pre-writing, students will be able to draft, revise and edit their writing, as well as share it with peers and instructors. Bringing a social aspect to the process is very important. Writing can be used as way to build friendships and connections to teachers and classmates, and therefore motivate students to be more open with the stories they create.
I created My Online Writer’s Notebook for my undergraduate capstone project. This was a six month project that encompassed research, conceptualization, design, prototyping, and user testing. While challenging, this project introduced me to the education space and inspired me to focus my career in this area. Observing students and teachers in the classroom as well as reading books and articles about teaching and learning opened my eyes to countless design opportunities. I hope to have another chance to work with students and educators in the near future.
Research
I began my research broadly. I looked at different audiences and different stake holders in the education space. Teachers, students, parents, administrators, each overcomes unique challenges every day.
Teacher Focus Group
While I read more articles and books than I thought possible the most influential part of my research was a focus group made up of teachers and technology specialists. By the time I held the focus group I was interested in writing as my subject area but had not solidified the end product yet. These women were able to share brilliant insights that only teachers with years of experience have to offer.
Participants:
Kay Bible:Technology specialist with three elementary schools; 33 years experience
Kathy Ehle:Fourth grade teacher at Alton Darby Elementary; 20 years experience
Kelly Gorby: Fifth grade teacher at Alton Darby Elementary; 15 years experience
Julie Johnson: Third grade teacher at Avery Elementary; 20 years experience
Kathy Parker-Jones: Technology specialist with three elementary schools; 18 years experience
Meghan Richter: Sixth grade language arts teacher at Hilliard Station; 10 years experience
More information on the Teacher Focus Group
Other reacearch topics include: 4th Graders as People and Writers, Boy Writers’ Challenges, The Writing Process, Writing Workshop, The Writing Process, Writers’ Notebooks, and Technology in the Classroom.
Interaction Design
Site Map
Sketch Wireframes
Click image to view PDF of sketch wireframes.
Final Wireframes
Click image to view PDF of final wireframes.
Visual Design
Round 1
Home Page
Pre-Writing
Drafting
User Testing
Paper Prototype
Paper Prototype Report [PDF]
I completed a small scale user test with printed paper prototypes of my initial design. I expected younger children to have difficulty completing the tasks with wireframe level design, so I created simple initial visual designs including icons and basic visual hierarchy to ease some of this challenge. The students provided valuable insight about a number of areas that needing improvement including the global navigation structure and iconography. I was really impressed by the students ability to jump in and give valuable feedback with something as low tech as a pile of papers.
Final User Testing
Final Testing Report [PDF]
HTML Prototype [HTML]
After another round of interaction and visual design I created a HTML prototype of the Online Writer’s Notebook. I created a testing plan including a series of tasks to be completed within the prototype, a simple survey, and a group discussion after each of the five subjects had finished the first two tasks.
It was challenging to complete this testing with kids. In hindsight there are definitely some changes I would have made to the test and my prototype. Because we had such a short time I had to focus on testing the Interaction Model of the site rather than how it could fit into a writing lesson. It was very straight forward and did not require the students to do any of their own writing. Because of this students were not engaged with the prototype and it was difficult to tell if the solution could be viable with more development time. I wish I had the time to build more of a back end for the product so that students could be allowed to spend a week or two using the site to compose stories.
The silver lining to my less than perfect test was one student who decided to write his own story anyway. I told him it wasn’t necessary, but he was having fun. He created a story map, and then a short draft of a story about how his brother snuck into his room and messed it up while he wasn’t home. Seeing the engagement that this student had inspired me to continue working to create a more functional prototype for longer term user testing. I hope to be able to complete this in the months following graduation.
