Idea Bash:
By The Book Internship
Design Intern
In Summer of 2021, I participated in a remote design internship at By The Book, a volunteer-run company that helps people memorize entire books of the Bible. While interning, I worked to help develop a video player system for the company.
Front-End Intern
Summer 2021
Adobe XD,
Protopie
Background:
The goal:
By The Book uses an online web application where users can interact in a virtual world. One of the major ways that users do so is through videos where catchy songs are played. My goal for the summer was to create a prototype of a custom video player that would add unique functions to hold the user's attention for longer, and thus make the videos more engaging.
My Role:
I researched designs, created test sketches for the designs, prototyped three main designs, and acquired user feedback on the three prototypes. I worked alongside the graphic design intern, Emily White. Additionally, as I was receiving school credit for the internship, I presented on internships in general as well as my experience to students at my university in Fall of 2021.
Timeline:
June 6 – June 12: Idea bash
June 13 – 19: Research, creating test concepts
June 20 – 26: Boiling down concepts to three main options
June 28 – July 9: Prototyping
July 26: User testing
October 1: Presentation to students
Idea Bash:
In the idea bash, I met with the larger By the Book team and worked through the consumer journey. From there, we decided on the system requirements and discussed roles going forward.
Researching, creating test concepts:
During this stage, I researched other children's sites with custom
video players. The findings supported creating a site that is immersive, explorable,
and guided the user's attention.
From there, I began created wireframes of many different design directions. As
decided from evaluating the user needs, the system required a video (with some basic
controls) and a chalice that would fill up with virtual points.
Prototyping:
Over the next couple weeks, I created the prototypes for the video players. It became apparent that Adobe XD did not have all the tools necessary, such as video integration. After research, I settled on Protopie, a prototyping program. After taking some crash-courses on its features, I recreated the three main designs as prototypes.
The background video has been removed as it is not my personal property.
User Testing:
After the completion of the prototypes, I met up
with my project supervisor to perform user testing.
There were
a few common points emphasized in the feedback, including:
Tappable Icons
Fun Animations
Immersive Designs
After taking away the future design goals, I completed the rest of my time with By the Book, helped choose the ideal design between the three (it was design 2), and gave some tips as to what I believed could be adjusted going forward.
Conclusion:
Through this internship, I got to work through an iteration of the product lifecycle, as well as learn new programs. I concluded my internship with By the Book after the user testing, and handed off my work to other developers so that they might continue the project's process and bring it to the current web application. I concluded my school credit assignments by presenting to students at Whitworth University information about my internship and how they might go about finding one for themselves.