Guidance That Grows
Expanding reach with age-appropriate onboarding for older students
Project Summary
Initially aimed at pre-K- to 3rd-graders, a reading assessment left out older students in both appearance and design. A new host to onboard older learners resulted in a 20% increase in tests taken – over 3 million in the 2022/23 school year.
❌ Appearance was cutesy, simple, and limited
❌ High-pitched, saccharine voice could be off-putting
❌ No hand-holding on using a mouse, headphones, etc.
❌ Overall, a childish host made older learners self-conscious that they hadn't yet mastered reading
✅ "Fingers" and body allowed for more engaging movement
✅ Voice and tone established based on user feedback
✅ Less screentime = less intrusive & faster production
✅ Testing showed increased interest among 3rd to 8th-grade students
Students chose the owl character and selected a voice actor to best speak to them
I initially started out too cutesy in the name of branding cohesion with the Wiggles the Worm character...
Once it was determined that the worm and owl character weren't interacting, I gave some variety and let 3rd-8th grade students choose which they preferred.
I morphed their top two choices into one. Students were clear they loved the cape! The board approved.
I fleshed out Swift's world and completed all 36 onboarding animations, each for both iOS and web.
Three weeks before launch, our partners altered us that some Native peoples found the presence of owls to be a harbinger of death, akin to including the Grim Reaper in our assessments. Because we served a disproportional number of Native students, we had to adjust.
I determined that if we stayed with a bird character, I could make the necessary substitutions. Once this new design was checked, double-checked and green-lit, I was able to deliver all animations to the developers with enough time to launch.
A good reminder to have a wide group of reviewers of different backgrounds in the room early on!
