Final Designs

User testing

After creating my final designs, I wanted to make sure they were effective towards my target audience (5-7 year olds). My mum works at Twining primary school in Tewksbury and she has allowed me to conduct a survey on 10 students. I created a short 10 question survey as the age range were quite young and i didn't want to complicate things. i also kept is quite simple as they were taking time out of their school day to help and i didn't want to be much trouble.


I gave them copies of my designs and asked them to fill out the activity sheet. In a group they went out to briefly do the tasks. although not many blackberries were out they all took part as best they could.


Here are the simple questions i asked them:

After reading the book and taking part in the activities, please can you answer some quick questions?

1.   Do you like the front cover?

Yes

No

2.   Did you understand what the book was about from the front cover?

Yes

No

3.   Does it make you want to read the book?

Yes

No

4.   Do you like the granddad character?

Yes

No

5.   Is the book fun?

Yes

No

6.   Did you enjoy filling out the activity sheet?

Yes

No

7.   Did the book make you want to go and pick some blackberries?

Yes

No

8.   Is the book easy to read?

Yes

No

9.   Do you like the images in the book?

Yes

No

10. Would you like to read the rest of the book?

Yes

No

Thank you for reading my book and helping me with my work!

The results of the survey are shown below:

1. Do you like the cover? Yes =70% No= 30%

2. Did you understand what the book was about from the front cover? Yes =30% No= 70%

3. Does it make you want to read the book? Yes =80% No= 20%

4. Do you like the Grandad character? Yes =100%

5. Is the book fun? Yes =100%

6. Did you enjoy filling out the activity sheet? Yes =100%

7. Did it make you want to go and pick some blackberries? Yes =90% No= 10%

8. Is the book easy to read? Yes = 90% ( one child didn't answer)

9. Do you like the images in the book? Yes =100%

10. Would you like to read the rest of the book? Yes =100%

These results show me that I may need to slightly change the front cover of the book with an explanation of what the book is about to make it clearer to the audience. I gather from my findings the the rest of the designs generated positive feedback which don't need much amending.

After a tutorial I have also established what else could do with being amended. these are that the character on the cover blends in a bit too much with the background so I will change the colour of grandads shirt slightly. I also need to change the spine so the title of the book fits at the top. I will also add in some fun facts in the hide and reveal section and change the layout of the activity spread so it seems the audience get more for their money.

Peer Assessment - near final designs

Cover

DP Spread 1.

DP Spread 2.

London book fair - Task

The task set for the London Book fair was to source three different innovations relating to children's book design or book publishing as a whole. Below are the various innovations i feel fit the tasks requirements:


1. pull through puppets

These are some examples of a range of books by Childs Play which include a cut out going throughout the book where a finger puppet is used as the main character. It's a simple way of engaging the reader with the book as they have control over the character giving the child a sense of achievement. I feel this element makes the book innovative and is appropriate towards its audience. Its a great point of sale as there is a whole series which cold be collectable.

2. Hot Dots

Hot dots are a great learning resource for children. I'ts very unique and innovative as you use the pen and dots on the page to learn making it a purely interactive, fun experience for the child. Children select an answer on the multiple choice cards by touching the pen to the corresponding dots for an audio/visual response. I think this is the next step into children's book publishing, it fits into todays society with technology and something that will appeal to children more. Personally i'd prefer to read a book but as an innovate design in publishing i think it has great potential. 

3. Activity cards

Above are some photos taken of some activity cards by 'Cardooo'. They are basically greeting cards aimed towards children that are activity based. Something i've never seen before. They also offer cards aimed towards adults that include desk calendars among other things. Although not a book as such it is a great innovation within children's publishing. I think it's great for children as it engages them with the product and takes them on a journey. I picked up a catalogue which gave lots more information. I think its a present with in a card and something the user won't expect which adds an element of surprise. After speaking to the man at the stand they retail at about £.2.99 which i think is really good as normal cards can be a lot more expensive than that.

session task

"Children are more likely to find encountering new places and people stressful which could affect their feedback"

ensure the location of the testing is in a comfortable environment surrounded by their friends.

Have a familier adult there as a safety net.

" They get tired and bored more quickly and are easily discouraged"

Turn the testing into a game or competition.

" Children are more used to asking for and receiving help. If the purpose of your questioning is to assess how clear the instruction/ information is how would you ensure that they worked unaided?"

If its more of an activity then they may not feel the need to ask for help, if you tell them it's a test it will unease them.

Task 2


• What is the audience age range for your final project?
5-7 year olds.

• What elements of your design do you feel at this stage would benefit from user testing?
The flow of the book, legibility and how fun the books seem. Whether the visual elements make sense.

• What method of user testing might you try and what will you be looking for in your results?
Questionare or video. Ideally video as you can study how they react to the design but this may not be possible so i would use a questionnaire.

• What setting would you use to carry out possible user tests?
In a school or over the internet

user testing ppt notes

User Testing ppt

• Important to make your design successful.

• Get to see your idea through the eyes of the audience, especially important from children, you get to see their perspective.

• Get to take on board their comments to progress

• How to test.

Questionnaires, Video/ observation, Interviews, Focus groups.

• Audience considerations:

who are your audience, what are you trying to communicate to them, what setting- where will they be tested, do they have previous knowledge of the subject matter, the larger the group then the more satisfactory the results will be.

• How to test

preference measures-  asking people what they prefer, scoring on a scale of 1-5, best and worst elements, focus groups-open questions and discussion.

Performance measures - How quickly the content is understood, how they react to it, is it stimulating or boring? can measure how much the tester gets it wrong etc. people may prefer a design but it may not be affective.

Process measures - watching and recording people using the artefact, protocol (the order in which things happen). Video and audio can give an insight to reactions and behaviours that may not been noticed at the time.

Testing Children

they are brutally honest and give an insight into things you haven't thought of before.

They get tired and bored more easily and get discouraged.

Feedback

After presenting my prototypes in todays session I received some helpful feedback. I will consider all of these aspects when progressing my ideas further to create my final concepts.


• To include the Grandad character throughout the book to continue the relationship between him and the audience.


• To develop visuals further.


• Maybe look at some children's magazines to acquire what language is used, how its displayed and interactive, fun elements that are used today.

Visual Prototypes

Below are my prototypes of my cover and one DP spread. This example includes flaps where the child has to find some blackberries, there are four flaps one will be the blackberries and the the remaining flaps will have other foraging items in them. The next page may have some fun facts and activities that tie in with this page.


I've tried to make the components of the page detailed with depth and texture, i've also decided to use quite a childlike illustration, i think this will relate to the child more making foraging as a whole more appealing.

Typography for for front cover

The image below show my choices for the title on the cover of my book. I have narrowed these down to 'Paris Je Aime' and 'Lino Stamp Bold' I think these will be most appealing to children as it they both show childish characteristics and they're quite inconsistent but there still legible. I really like 'Lino Stamp Bold' as its quite earthy and wild which fits the theme of the book.

how to set up my children's book

Before I start to create my book I need to understand how to produce it in a professional way. The website link below came in handy as I will consider these aspects when producing my layouts and cover. It suggests what dpi to use and dimensions etc.


http://www.artbookbindery.com/ChildrensBooksComplete.htm

Below are tips I found most helpful:


Choosing a page size/ binding
"The most common page size for children's books is the 8 1/2" x 8 1/2" format. This is mainly due to the preference of many illustrators to create the illustrations in the square format. As a rule, the square format is commonly used when text is placed opposite the illustration pages, and not mixed with the illustrations. If text is to be placed on the same page as the illustration, or if the illustrations are produced in the portrait format, the larger page size of 8 1/2" x 11" is a good choice. You may select the landscape format for your book at no additional charge. The term "Portrait" is used to describe a page which is taller than it is wide. For example, an 8 1/2" x 11" portrait style page is 11" tall and 8 1/2" wide. The term "Landscape" is used to describe a page which is wider than it is tall.

The most common binding style is the quality softcover (also known as perfect bound or paperback) format. Generally, books containing 20 pages or more are produced in the quality softcover format while books containing fewer than 20 pages are produced in the saddle stitch binding format. The hardcover binding format is also available, but is not as common because of the higher production cost."

Scanning tips

"There are many brands of scanners available on the market. Even the most inexpensive scanner will be able to produce the high quality images needed for printing. Properly setting your resolution will determine whether your images will be blurry, or print quality. Print resolution is measured in dots per inch (DPI). The more dots used to make up the image, the higher the quality of the image.

For best results, illustrations should be scanned at high resolution (300 DPI) in either the TIFF or JPEG file format. If you are planning to enlarge the size of your illustration to be printed, it would be advisable to scan your illustrations at 600 DPI. Some scanners automatically default to 72 DPI between uses so be careful. Illustrations scanned at 72 DPI would not be considered acceptable for printing.

Note: Higher resolution is not necessarily better. A resolution over 600 DPI will only increase your file size (sometimes dramatically) and cause your computer to run more slowly."

character/ illustration style development

After establishing what media type I wanted to use I went on to develop this further. As mentioned in older posts, I have been inspired by how Eric Carle produces his work and the affect it gives.  He layers up different textures and paints over the top. I thought i would use this method with my pieces but also adding aspects of my own style to create a good balance. Below shows the process i have taken to create my Grandad character…

Sketching the character

Choice of textures materials

Transferring sketches on to texture

Base with textures to paint on to of. This
also includes layering.

Painted over

As the paint itself doesn't give enough depth to the
image, I manipulated the painting in photoshop to simply add
shadows and highlights using various brushed and colours.

Media Selection

As stated below, I thought of using gouache paints to produce my work. I want a textured look but also want an element of childish characteristics within the work itself, if feel this would be more relatable to the audience. The image below show me testing the various media I could use.

After testing these on paper i have confirmed that Gouache would be the best approach to take.


Oils could be used to outline the image as it gives a nice texture to it but it is quite messy and busy, I worried it would overcrowd the page making it illegible, especially as children are the primary audience. Pens are too child like and unprofessional. Acrylics and watercolours are ok but I'm still not satisfied they'll cater towards the build up of texture and colour. Gouache does do this and this is why i'll be using it in the illustrations.

presentation content

After feedback from the my roughs deadline I came to the conclusion that the interactive elements were a good idea but i felt i needed some sort of character to bring the book together and have a point of focus for the audience. I decided to include a grandad as this character; I think that this idea would appeal to both genders and give them something to relate to. As mentioned before, children like to have a sense of control and asking them to help the Grandad character will give them this as well as teaching them to help others as well as the obvious point of foraging.


The setting of the book will be in beaches, hedgerows and in forests. There will be a question for example, asking the child, "can you help Grandad find some wild garlic?" there will be various flaps and pull outs where different items can be found, the child has to explore the page to find the garlic. The next page will include purely the garlic in a pop our form to further visualise the element and set the scene. It will also give some fun information about the subject. This will be the layout of the book and at the end will be an activity sheet, similar to an earlier concept asking them to draw what they've found, where they found it and what tools they used. This element should encourage the child to actually go out and forage with the information they have learned from the book.

An example of a successful pull out concept

An example of a successful pop-up concept

Initial concept idea located in a garden. Example of layout and
pop-out idea.

progression of idea. Located in beaches, hedgerows and
forests. Elements and interactivity the same as before.

The illustration style came from ins pirate by Eric Carle, i love how he uses paint built up of different paints and textures, I will use something similar to this for my own illustration style. I will use different textures and mainly use Gouache paints as I feel they really textures a piece of work and this will be better suited to my design.

Eric Carles, the very hungry caterpillar. Illustration style.

Example of Gouache paints that I will be using.

I Feel this illustration style will suite 5-7 year olds as it gives an extra dimention to the image, they will want to interact with it, its quite earthy which relates to the activity of foraging. Subconsciously it will bring the design and theme together. Possibly inspiring the child to carry out the activity.

Above are some examples of typefaces I am thinking about using. I have decided I want to use a san serif typeface as its far more legible for the child to read. Typefaces such as Arial Rounded are especially easier, this style is similar to what they are used to reading at school. Although I may add a more creative typeface for title pages and the cover otherwise it could seem as though I'm patronising the child. 7 year olds will be a lot more competent at reading so I need to find the correct balance between all ages with in the age group.

I have considered the cover of my book to be similar to the roughs further up the page. Through-out  the book the grandad may not appear so I think I need him to be displayed on the cover so the child has an image in their head of what he looks like. I will probably have him located in one of the locations in the book as to tease the audience and want them to read further. I will also have a more creative typeface to give the impression of fun into the book, again to excite the reader.

progression continued

After the helpful feedback on my last post I have slightly changed the concept. As the topic of the book should be about foraging in the wild, its inappropriate to have a garden as the setting of the book. I have now changed this to 'Foraging with Grandad' as i like the idea of having a friendly character that appeals to both genders. Children like to have a sense of control and the idea of helping a loving character will accomplish this theory and also help them to learn.


Instead of a garden as the setting I have changed this to beaches, forests and hedgerows. All the other aspects of the concept will be the same as below, only the location has changed.

Concept Progression

After reviewing my earlier concepts i feel these need improving on. I have
established that I want to include interactive elements, which I have worked
on. But although interesting ideas, they come more across as activity books.
I feel i need to include some sort of generic character that a child can relate to;
Everybody can relate to a grandparent this is why i've included a grandfather
into this concept. The child reading the book plays themselves, This will give them
the sense of control over the book, making it more enjoyable.

The first DP spread asks the child to help the Grandad find the vegetables. Again this
makes it seem that the child has the control, on the following page it asks which item to search for,
in this cue, a carrot. There will be various different flaps, pop ups and pull outs to explore to find the carrot.
This will teach the child where to forage for the different products.

As this is aimed at 5-7 year olds, i think it's important to start on a basic level and the adult character shows that supervision is needed.



On the second DP spread will be a pop up carrot to give the child a sense of achievement. as discussed before i would like to use a painted collage affect but this will be explored further.

Interactive Children's books

As mentioned in the post below I want to include interactive elements into my book to keep the child interested and excited to learn. I have picked a selection of books I think are appropriate and interesting to play with. It also gives me an indication in to how the mechanics of these elements work.

The Jolly Postman is a classic and offers unique interactive elements with its envelopes and letters. This Christmas version also include even more activity aspects such as jigsaw puzzles and games.

This book is full of flip ups and pull out. But
I a specifically interested in the pull out elements
as this is something i have in mind for my own
designs, i think its a great way of drawing
the audience in. I'm thinking of a hide and seek
approach, similar to the concept of this book.
This is a great example to prove this theory works.

This book shows some really detailed and complex
pop-up's. They look  great with it's minimal text,
it's a very visually focused book, which is constructed
in a brilliant way. I love the use of descriptive words
that sets the scene perfectly in your mind. Although
this is a very visually stimulating book, it's
quite predictable. I want to include rhythm and
routine but i also want to include an element of
surprise and suspense.