Why?! Why?!
¿Por qué, por qué? (Why, why?) is a project for Discovery Kids Latinoamérica, part of Discovery Networks, with the goal to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) among Mexican children, specifically 8 to 12 year old girls. As a subject matter expert in media design for children, my role included concept and content creation, and UX research.
¿Por qué, por qué?
In the summer of 2018, the Head of Discovery Kids Programming, México reached out to me to create the digital extension for a TV project called ¿Por qué, por qué? targeting young women. The short episodes airing on TV presented different STEM topics and the idea was to expand the learning into a microsite on the Discovery Kids website.
My job was to create the concept for the microsite, develop the content for the sections, and work with Discovery Kids creative agency, Noblink (based in Miami) who would execute the project following my guidelines.
Goals and Objectives
To create the digital extension of the TV project “¿Por qué? ¿Por qué?”, a series of clips featuring two teenagers conducting experiments to explain scientific concepts.
Objectives:
To connect with Mexican girls and encourage them to perform some of the experiments seen on TV.
To reinforce the learning of complex concepts shown on the TV clips.
To inspire Mexican girls to pursue careers in STEM..
Constraints
Limited information about Mexican scientists.
Budget and time constraints of the agency developing the final product.
Team
Programming Manager Discovery Kids - Mariana Cano
Product Manager, formative research, user testing - Rocío Almanza Guillén. That's me!
Development Noblink -Juan José Balbi
Methodology
Inspiration Phase
Understanding the Needs of Tween Mexican Girls
This phase started with an interview to the Executive Producer of the TV clips who had investigated the topic of Mexican girls in STEM and the specific needs.
With this information in mind, I went ahead and interviewed a group of girls from the target audience to deeply understand their needs.
At the same time, we went through a process of formative research focusing on content development.
Ideation Phase
Mood Board
Based on the interviews with girls, I created a mood board to figure out possible directions for the design and to inspire the designers at the creative agency.
CONCEPT AND CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
First, I identified users' learning environments, abilities and previous knowledge. Then, with the list of topics used for the development of the TV clips at hand, I developed the concept and created three big sections:
- Profiles
- Simulations
- Games
- Videos
Finally, I documented the visual, technical, and learning strategies to guide the agency's designers.
Implementation Phase*
*Discovery's creative agency was in charge of the implementation and execution of the project. For reasons beyond my control, some of the proposed content and suggested changes stemming from the user texting round, were not included in the final version.
Screenshot of remote user testing session with 8 year old girl in Mexico City.
USER TESTING
Once the agency created the site and before launching it, I made a testing round in order to reveal possible usability problems.
Findings and Proposed Solutions
I discovered that some of the content in the profiles section was too long. Solution: Replace text with illustrations.
The content was not linked to the videos or other sections and felt unrelated. Solution: Link every page to the appropriate topics so children can create connections promoting long-term learning.
There were unnecessary steps and clicks in the games and simulations. Solution: Improve UI.
Members of the target audience found some of the illustrations unappealing and even scary. Solution: Refine illustrations in the Profiles section making the faces more amicable.