visual advocacy: prototype feedback

Over the past week, we went ahead and got in touch again with our contacts over at the Metropolitan Council for Early Learning, as well as Lori Galloway to look at some of our prototypes. The feedback we got was generally pretty good, and I think we also have a lot of directions we can push the project in, thanks to some help from all sides! Here are a couple of the questions we asked:

What do you think of this as a parent? As a professional?
Lori was really enthusiastic about our idea and liked that we were providing activities for parents who don't always have the time to think of activities for their kids. She also thought that it was a good environment to put them in, and that maybe people would be more likely to be receptive to them in a place where they normally wouldn't receive those messages. (Sort of how like things in students' backpacks sometimes end up going by ignored.) She also liked it made the shopping experience made it more than just "shopping".

As a professional, there are a few things that might need to be considered if the idea is implemented: specifying an age range, including any warnings about choking hazards, and also remembering that the library is a good resource for lower income families who may not have a computer in the home.

What catches your attention in regards to educational activities and games for kids?
Lori lent us an awesome book that lists a whole bunch of activities parents can do with their kids at home, to help us think up some ideas. She also had a whole box of just regular stuff (soda bottles, milk jugs, etc) that she had been collecting to use for projects in the book, and encouraged that sort of behavior. In regards to the website player, she liked the icons and the categories telling parents what had been learned.

What about this system makes your life harder? What can we change to make it easier?
A list of supplies for the activities listed on the website would be helpful in order to be prepared to do them without watching the video. She also wanted to know what visitors would first be greeted with upon entering the site: something like a simple and easy accessible explanation of the project's mission would be helpful.

What don't you like about it?
Moving forward: consider colors for the website and the way the images will be rendered (photographic, drawn?) Kid-friendly, but maybe not too "primary" since that's pretty overdone.


As far as things we can take into consideration, we have a lot of information from both parties and the critique that we had today in class. Including videos of the kids actually interacting with the project might help parents to believe that their kids will actually enjoy it. Lori also gave us a specific list of "skill areas" that we can look at to help us develop a variety and full set of activities (things like language, movement skills, music, kindergarten readiness skills, etc.) And of course, the importance of testing out the directions to make sure that they're understandable and will develop the product we want it to.

We also got some feedback from the staff at marc, who stated: " This is an interesting concept...I definitely like the idea of giving parents easy, simple things they can do with their children. I just don't know about the vehicle -- will the messages get "lost" in the product? I know they are simple messages/ideas, but will someone who has just bought a frying pan really look at what the label says --maybe there is a way to make them stand out more? " Definitely a very good point, and something I think we have been concerned about since the beginning of the project. I think it's worth looking at some new ways we can deliver the message: something we talked about in class today too.