Little Literacy Lab

UX Designer - Project Lead

Role

UX Designer Project Lead

Team

Erica Van Noy - Solo

Responsibilities

Wireframing, user research, hi-fi prototyping, usability studies and mockups.

Responsive Design

Left to right: Home Page, Resources for Families, Resources for Teachers, The Banned Books Library

Project Overview

The Little Literacy Lab is a user focused, responsive site that aims to increase the literacy in children and young people while providing access to banned books & free resources for Teachers & Families.

Problem

I have observed in my own community, a decline of literacy in children and books being banned at an alarming rate. Teachers & families need help and resources to help instill a love of reading in children & young people. My goal was create a responsive website that follows accessibility guidelines and creates a space for teachers & families to get the resources they need to help with declining literacy in children.

Design Process

In my research I observed children losing a love of reading and not appreciating the importance of books. With the teachers & families in my community I noticed a severe decline of resources, aid, and support, which are all desperately needed. I observed four key pain points I aimed to address in my design. Reading assistance, vocabulary help, access to banned books, and a website that is intuitive to navigate for all users. I created user personas of varying ages and demographics and a user journey map to ensure my design was human focused first.

I then created lo-fi wireframes and conducted a usability study with people in my community to test the user flow and overall efficiency of my design. Once feedback was received, I made the necessary changes and created the hi-fi prototypes.

Results

After careful consideration of the usability study results and my own research, I was able to create a responsive design that could positively benefit my own community. My design was received positively from users and particularly my focus on free resources and banned books.

“As an educator, I deeply value resources that are easy to use and that I can share with my students’ families. This site was simple, full of information, and something I would be eager to share with my families.” 

  • Caitlin, study participant