Product Designer
8 Weeks
Natty Solomon,
Matt Young,
Megha Goel
Figma,
Procreate,
Illustrator
Many students grow up without understanding why they have a difficult time learning in their class. They are unaware that they might be dyslexic and don’t know of the resources that exist to support them.
Our interactive game, First Step, helps children, families, and teachers understand the correct procedures in determining if a child may have dyslexia.
How can young children find access to dyslexic testing without the financial burden, and negative stigmas that coincide with being diagnosed with dyslexia?
With millions of kids feeling discouraged and frustrated in the classroom, it led my group to uncover the very real possibility that these students might be dyslexic and don’t know it. With the existing stigmas that are placed on students who are diagnosed with dyslexia, it is important to shift the narrative and empower students to learn in a way that works best for them!
Where can families who are unable to afford the costly rates that exist in many establishments, seek help for their child to ensure they are able to learn in the best way possible?
To fully understand the problem space, it was necessary to conduct a series of secondary research on the topic of dyslexia and how it is currently diagnosed. Through several scholarly resources, I learned dyslexia is a language-based learning disability, with varying symptoms like slow or inaccurate reading, poor spelling and writing, or mixing up the sound of similar letters.
“Dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words” (decoding)
In many cases, dyslexia can be fully managed with proper and early detection. While dyslexia has increasingly high numbers in both adults and children, it is not common for treatment to begin at an early age due to many varying factors.
Schools are not equipped properly to recognize dyslexia and parents are not informed about students’ progress and abilities in the classroom.
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This is because the problem is either overlooked or too expensive to treat. In many cases parents believe their child will "grow out of it."
With affordability, accessibility, and student involvement in mind, I conducted a competitive analysis to examine existing direct and indirect products that currently serve as a preliminary test for dyslexia in children.
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Our team conducted 5 semi-structured interviews with a group of parents, students, and educational psychologists who experience dyslexia either directly or indirectly. Each interview took place via phone with a desire to understand how stakeholders experience existing or non-existing preliminary testing for dyslexia.
“I noticed I was slower at reading and read at a lower level than my peers. It was sometimes difficult to not compare myself to my classmates because it felt like I was the only one who struggled with this.”
- Student
“We knew he had trouble with phonics since the 1st grade but it wasn’t diagnosed until 7th grade when his teacher got the ball rolling for us. The only hesitation we had was the price.”
- Parent
“A test could have been done remotely and cheaply on a computer...giving us an earlier idea before getting professional help.”
- Parent
“We are blessed that we could afford to have him tested outside the school, but it’s expensive, and I imagine many kids slip through the cracks.”
- Parent
“The only way I test children is if the parents go out of their way to contact me, I do not look for signs in children myself.”
- Educational Psychologist
Using the data collected from interviews, I was able to create a set of personas as it represented our target audience; students, parents and educators.
With the consideration of each persona, I outlined each user's journey to develop a deeper understanding of the unique experiences of my target audience. I chose to do this at 3 stages, and seeked pain points that would help drive my design solution.
In order to fully process what pages were needed, the sitemap helped guide our team to prioritize and make a full end to end experience.
The wireframes were helpful in highlighting the main functionality and layouts of each page. I was able to establish the information hierarchy through different design elements such as headings, buttons, and horizontal line dividers.
As Dyslexia can make it difficult to read text with certain typeface, I ensured the final product used an inclusive type and color. With this in mind, I chose to use Lexie Readable as it was specifically designed by centering dyslexic needs and legibility.
Given more time and resources, I would have:
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