UI Design Brief Submission 3

Group:
Aden Murray - S2947680
Adrian Palenzuela - S2894057
Blake Gibson - S2935986
Daniel Blakesley - S2918742

Page 1

Task Allocation and Completion

Stage 1
Date
Assigne
d

Date
Complet
ed

Ver.

Author

Addition/Alteration

16.3

20.3

0.1

Aden

Section 2

16.3

20.3

0.1

Adrian

Section 3 - 3.2

16.3

20.3

0.1

Blake

Section 4

16.3

20.3

0.1

Daniel

Section 1

20.3

27.3

0.2

Aden

Section 5.3 - 5.4

20.3

27.3

0.2

Adrian

Further research for

section 3

20.3

27.3

0.2

Blake

Section 5 - 5.2

20.3

27.3

0.2

Daniel

Section 3.3 - 3.4

27.3

01.04

0.3

Aden

Ensure goal is properly

defined

27.3

01.04

0.3

Adrian

Ensure goal is properly

defined

27.3

01.04

0.3

Blake

Check report for

consistent grammar,
correct use of tenses
and spelling

27.3

01.04

0.3

Daniel

Ensure correct
references are
distributed through
the report

27.3

01.04

1.0

Daniel

Submit first
assessment item

Page 2

Stage 2
Date
Date
Assigne Complet
d
ed

Ver.

Author

Addition/Alteration

20/04

05/05

1.1

Aden

6.2 documentation, decide

on appropriate colour
scheme/ fonts

20/04

06/05

1.1

Adrian

6.0 introduction, design

tools documentation

20/04

03/05

1.1

Blake

6.1 documentation,
structure diagram, revise
first report

20/04

02/05

1.1

Daniel

6.3 documentation, create

prototypes

04/05

06/05

1.2

Blake

Revision of stage 1

04/05

07/05

2.0

Daniel

Final formatting and

submission

Page 3

Stage 3
Date
Date
Assigne Complet
d
ed

Ver.

Author

Addition/Alteration

15/05

15/05

2.1

All

Creation and completion of

7.1 Test Plan

12/05

06/06

2.2

Aden

7.2 Test Results and

Analysis

12/05

06/06

2.2

Adrian

8. Final Design
Documentation

12/05

06/06

2.2

Blake

7.2.1 Findings and

Recommendations

12/05

05/06

2.2

Daniel

Creation of final prototype

25/05

06/06

2.3

All

Revision of previously
assigned work from stage
2

08/05

07/06

3.0

Daniel

Submission

Page 4

Contents
1. Introduction......................................................................................6
1.1. Purpose of this Document............................................................6
1.2. Scope of this document...............................................................6
2. Background......................................................................................8
3. Target audience................................................................................9
3.1. Audience beliefs.........................................................................9
3.2. Audience levels...........................................................................9
3.3. Audience demographics...........................................................10
3.4. Audience expectations.............................................................10
4. Problem Statement.........................................................................12
5. Goals..............................................................................................13
5.1. Usability Objectives..................................................................13
5.2. Single message........................................................................13
5.3. Mandatory elements.................................................................13
5.4. Deliverables..............................................................................14
6. Alpha Design..................................................................................15
6.1. Structural Design.......................................................................17
6.2. Visual Design.............................................................................19
6.3. Prototypes..................................................................................23
7. Testing............................................................................................27
7.1

Test Plan...................................................................................28

7.2. Test Results and Analysis..........................................................32

7.2.1
8.

Findings and Recommendations............................................33

Final Design...................................................................................33

9. Appendices.....................................................................................37
10. References......................................................................................49

Page 5

1. Introduction
Date

Author

Time Spent

18/03

Daniel Blakesley

1h

19/03

Daniel Blakesley

1.5h

23/03

Daniel Blakesley

0.5h

Blake Gibson

0.5 hours

01/04

1.1. Purpose of this Document

This document is intended to outline the design choices made in the
planning of a potential app for the Queensland Police Force. The
intended use of this app would be to educate children about using the
Internet safely and appropriately. The app is intended to build upon the
existing material supplied by the Queensland Police Force, including
characters, keywords and themes that have been developed with a the
audience in mind.
This document will examine the project and give a complete evaluation
of how the desired app would be designed and implemented to give it
appeal to a wide range of children from a similar age group. The
document will include user research data for the app, the design work
and recommendations, and the user testing of the design. This
document will therefore present findings on how designing an app for
children differs from designing for an older demographic.
The documents contents are intended to present our findings of how
the app should be designed and to justify these design choices and
how they are being used to appeal to the target demographic.

1.2. Scope of this document

This document is intended to justify the design of an app to be
developed for the Queensland Police Force.
This document will include a detailed description of the reason why this
app is being created and what the intended use shall be. It shall also
explore the demographic as it stands currently by identifying key
features that are specifically used in other media to incentivize and
encourage use of a product. The document will address the problems
that are presented in the design of this app and will propose ways in
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which they can be overcome. The intended outcome of this project will
also be considered so that the design stage will have a defined goal
which can be designed towards. Details on the creation of a prototype
will be shown and will implement the features that have been
researched for the project, such as design choices made to appeal to a
specific demographic.
This document will not detail any aspects that would be required to
develop such an app. This includes but is not limited to items such as
resources and technical expertise required for development, details on
creating or maintaining a functional app, information regarding
copyright and trademarks relating to characters, and estimates
regarding the time required for the creation of an app.

Page 7

2. Background
Date

Author

Time Spent

19/03

Aden Murray

2 hours

01/04

Blake Gibson

0.25 hours

The Background of the project revolves around the future design of an

application issued by the Fraud and Cyber Crime Unit within the
Queensland Police Service. The reasoning behind this was to address
Fraud and Cyber Crime within desired target audiences and having
them learn and understand the safety implications when venturing
online. This is all to lead children down a path where they can safely
use the internet while diminishing negative influences such as cyber
bullying whilst simultaneously increasing the amount of knowledge so
that they can eventually educate adults and we can experience a
cyber-safe culture the Queensland Police Force has envisioned. The
value to the client comes in the form of the app itself teaching the user
how to be cyber safe due to an increased awareness and Fiscals five
tips and the app conveys this message across multiple different
platforms that including Android, Apple and windows phones. Many
younger children have easy access to this kind of technology and since
the Queensland Police Force wish to get a message across rather than
simply making a profit it is easier to accomplish this; especially in this
day and age through this particular medium. The value for the user
comes in the form of entertainment and the knowledge this app gives
you for how to be safe in the cyber world, being able to learn while
enjoying the app is very useful and will show great result for both
parties involved.

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3. Target audience
Date

Author

Time Spent

19/3

Adrian

1h

22/03

Daniel Blakesley

2h

23/3
26/04
01/04

Adrian

2h

Daniel Blakesley

0.5h

Blake Gibson

1.5 hours

Fiscal the Fraud Fighting Ferret Cyber Safety Program is primarily

aimed towards conveying its message to primary school children aged
between 5-12 years old.
One activity used to research this particular target audience was
through face-to-face interviews with primary school students. Another
was the research and analysis of statistical data gathered by the
Australian Bureau of Statistics. Lastly, the analysis of the market of
popular childrens mobile applications had been undertaken for a
greater understanding to what may be popular application features
among our target audience.
By analysing the data gathered through the ABS surveys and other
sources there have been notable statistics that will be used to help
ensure an appeal among the primary audience.

3.1.

Audience beliefs

The research gathered showed that though children did have some
interest in the idea of the cyber safety program, a majority of children
have been found to not really care for such a program. However it was
found that girls demonstrated a much better attitude towards the
program due to many young boys trying to exemplify a bad boy
persona which I found to be very puerile. When asked for thoughts on
particular mobile apps presented to them, it was found that this
audience preferred childrens apps with more colour, interesting
images and interactivity.

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3.2.

Audience levels

The Primary Level audience being targeted are primary school children
aged between 5-12 years of age. This is because the target of the
entire program has been directed towards this age group due to the
program having the greatest predicted rate of success with this
demographic.
Secondary Level audiences are adults such as parents and teachers
who can recommend the app to their children/students that make up
our primary audience.
The mobile application looks to consolidate the existing client-base but
aims to reach a greater number of potential clients within that target
group.

3.3.

Audience demographics

In the ABS survey, Square Eyes and Couch Potatoes (2012)[1] , it was
discovered that at least 80% of both boys and girls aged 5-14 in
Australia participated in watching TV or other screen-based activities
(including mobiles and the internet). This means that the audience will
most likely be used to consuming a large amount of content through
apps or websites.
Another source revealed that 90% of children aged 5 to 14 years
accessed the Internet in the 12 months prior to April 2012[2]. In
addition, 95% of children 8-11 have had access to the internet in the
past 4 weeks with nearly every child having access to the internet at
some point of their lives [3]. This means that our app should not have
issues being used by our primary audience as they will most likely
have prior experience with similar design concepts.
As of April 2013, 35% of Australian children have mobile phones, a
number on the constant rise[4].This bodes well for the program as there
will be great coverage of the application by the target audience. Our
target audience is of course primary school aged children of both
genders. Consequently, their education and literacy levels will vary
greatly, however by designing the prototype to require extremely
minimalistic literacy and education levels we can cater for all
variations quite easily.

3.4.

Audience expectations

It is assumed that this app will be used with the expectation of

education through interactive or visual based components. The easiest
way to achieve this is through a consistent and clear use of design
throughout the app, with clear ways of navigating the apps multiple
components.
The app must also be accommodating to allow for the primary users
(children) under the expectation that they may not know the purpose
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of the app when initially opening the app. This means that the app
must offer clear visual identifiers which can be understood quickly and
with minimal or no reading required by the user to access the
educational content. To achieve this colour schemes and design of the
user interface must be simple and allow for users to quickly identify
and hold obvious meaning.
As the audience is expected to be young, it must be assumed that they
will react better to short form content and feedback intensive
components. This means that the app should educate mostly through
things that will not take a large amount of time to convey an idea and
that the app will always respond to input from the user with feedback
that will make sense to the user.
It is also expected that the different components of the app should
always feel consistent in design and in the way that they react to user
input. The app should always convey the idea that it is a single
application, and therefore all components of the app must be logically
connected in the simplest way possible.
When it comes to actual application usage, 60% of apps for kids are in
the category of education, with 46% of that number also being in the
game category[5]. This can indicate that quite a number of educational
apps are in fact highly interactive as it will be more appealing and
enjoyable for young children.

Page 11

4. Problem Statement
Date

Author

Time Spent

19/03

Blake Gibson

1.5 hours

01/04

Blake Gibson

0.25 hours

Our client, the Fraud and Cybercrime Unit of the Queensland Police
Service, is facing the problem of a rising number of cases involving
cyber-crime. In response to this issue, the client has developed the
Fiscal the Fraud Fighting Ferret Cyber Safety Program as stated
above. This program aims to encourage school children to learn about
cyber safety, online threats and responsible online behaviour and to
share this information with their family so that they too can benefit
from the application. We have been tasked with developing a user
interface design for a mobile app that primarily focuses on primary
school aged children as they are the applications primary audience.
The Queensland Police Force requires that the design be complete by
Friday, June 5th and includes the existing characters and artwork they
have provided to present Fiscals five tips to help protect your
identity. This places a slight time constraint upon us joining the low
budget constraint we are already facing.

Page 12

5. Goals
Date

Author

Time Spent

20/03

Blake Gibson

2.5 hours

23/03

Aden

45mins

25/03

Aden

2hrs

01/04

Blake Gibson

5.1.

1 hour

Usability Objectives

Our application will require an extremely high level of usability as its primary
target audience are very young; primary school aged children. Due to the
expected age of the primary audience we must assume that these children
only have basic web and mobile navigational skills and so it must be as easy
as possible to use. Success in achieving this will be measured by the ease in
which children are able to navigate the application and find what they are
looking for with a minimal amount of effort. A simple way to measure success
in this area is by gathering together a group of children that represent the
target audience for the app and ask them to use the application and give
their opinions on how easy it was to use or just if they had any problems
finding anything they needed.

5.2.

Single message

5.3.

Mandatory elements

If we can ensure the children using our app remember one thing it would be
to take the steps you need to protect your identity online and stay cyber
safe. Hopefully they will also remember that they can use our app to find out
the necessary precautions that should be taken to achieve this message. In
order to guarantee the audience responds to the given information, they will
have to believe that the tips we give them can ensure their safety. We must
make them incontrovertibly trust Fiscal and his friends and believe they know
what they are talking about. This way, the children don't feel as if they need
to follow the five steps but instead that they want to; resulting in a far higher
percentage of success and since the message comes from QPS, this adds
credibility to the message as well!

There are a number of mandatory elements to be built into the design

of the application. A majority of these are straightforward and are
issued by the organisation itself. This includes the QPS logo as well as
the relevant information linking them to the message conveyed in the
app. Contact information in situations of cyber crime and such
behaviour as well as links to the website are also necessary due to
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their great importance. Another mandatory element is artwork of Fiscal

the ferret and all the supporting characters as requested by the client;
these will be used throughout the app to emphasise and reinforce the
message. The five tips of Fiscal will also be what the app will revolve
itself around and thus will take on a dominating role in many screens. It
is mandatory that the app is appealing to both the parents and their
children. It is said that parents would be the ones to download the app
for the children and therefore it is very important that the app has
quality material and educational value. Educational content is what
drives parents to download and purchase specific apps. Nearly 80% of
those surveyed by PBS KIDS reported that educational content was
something they considered when selecting an app for their child.[6]

5.4.

Deliverables

On completion we would be able to deliver the Queensland Police

Service a high fidelity prototype of the application that showcases an
intuitive and colourful user interface design that meets their standards.
The application will come with a number of important documents
which include things such as a set of instructions on how to properly
use the app, as well as maintaining the app. In addition to those things
all the supporting files will be given including image, video and sound
files. This includes the design brief, detailing the user research,
designs, user testing results and things such as copyright papers and
other necessary forms that are involved in the making of this app.
The underlying message of the app will be the education of children on
the importance of cyber safety through the application medium subtly
highlighted through themes and games. How this will be accomplished
is through the implementation of activities that will keep the retention
of our selected audience in this case being school aged children
between 5-12. Through the use of a wide array of interactive elements
that house a cartoon style, we will encourage the children to have fun
and have a valuable learning experience.

Page 14

6.

Alpha Design

Date

Author

Time Spent

22/04

Daniel Blakesley

2 hours

28/04

Daniel Blakesley

1 hours

30/04

Adrian Palenzuela

2 hours

02/05

Daniel Blakesley

1.5 hours

02/05

Adrian Palenzuela

2 hours

02/05

Blake Gibson

3 hours

03/05

Blake Gibson

2 hours

04/05

Daniel Blakesley

2 hours

05/05

Adrian Palenzuela

1 hours

05/05

Aden Murray

4 hours

06/05

Adrian Palenzuela

1 hours

06/05

Aden Murray

1 hour

06/05

Blake Gibson

2 hours

07/05

Daniel Blakesley

1 hours

03/06

Daniel Blakesley

2 Hours

This section will explore the initial design of the app and its
components. To come to this, design tools were used to ensure that the
goals of the app were identified. The tools that we used in the design
were personas and brainstorming. With the information from these
tools we were able to design the structure and visual elements of the
app. With this information a prototype was developed and continuously
updated, to ensure the design was functional and able to meet the
requirements of the app.

Page 15

UI Design Tools
The Design Tools selected, Personas and Brainstorming, are intended
to help specify the ideas more clearly. They are built on the research
results discussed in the previous sections, meaning that the designs
are robust and fact-based.
Personas
Personas are powerful modelling tools that use the information from
the user research stage of the brief to represent the users of the
application. They are specific models based on behavioural and
motivational observations made on people discussed in the research
stage. It allows the user research findings to be turned into something
tangible, as there is a conceptualization of the user. It was considered
as the best choice as it includes goals that people have when using the
app, tasks they wish to complete, what the product should provide and
how it should behave. This will provide a clearer idea on how to
develop the app. This tool also proves to be beneficial as work can be
tested using the personas prior to testing with real people, which
allows problems and flaws to be found early.
For the documentation see appendices A
Brainstorming
Our primary goal is to design an educational app for children
Rules:
o Realistic
o Mainly focus on children
o Remember parents and teachers
Ideas:
Aden
o
o
o
o

Bright colours
Clarity
Easily identifiable
Good font

Danny
o

Simple

Simple

Uses basic

words
Colours
Symbols

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 Adrian
o

funducational

Blake
o

Child

friendly

6.1. Structural Design

The application opens up to a splash screen displaying much of the
artwork that was provided to us by the Queensland Police Force to
immediately familiarise the user with the characters. The splash screen
also informs the user to touch the screen to start which when done so
will close the splash screen and take the user to the main menu.
Navigation throughout the application was intentionally kept as simple
as possible due to the young age of the target audience. This easy
navigation principle was continued into the main menu. From the main
menu you can swipe either left or right as indicated by the swipe view
at the bottom of the screen, to reach the two other essential pages of
the application.

Swiping left brings the user to the activities page and swiping to the
right displays the five tips page. The activities page has buttons that
link the user to each of the different activities that the user can
complete to teach them the five tips. Each activity will then have its
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own individual page in which the user could complete the activity to
keep the application interesting but the applications primary focus was
to increase the knowledge for cyber safety. In order to achieve this the
tips page displays all five of Fiscals tips for cyber safety, each of these
tips are presented on a button which, when pressed, will take the user
to another page that gives them more in depth information about each
of the tips. This information includes a very clear explanation about the
message each tip is trying to convey, strategies the user can
implement to achieve what the tip is recommending and also how
things could improve if the tips advice was followed.
We also used multiple personas derived from interview results as an
extremely useful design element. The eighteen interviewees are from
all three of our target audiences and we got very varied results for
example children are motivated by enjoyable and interactive activities
whereas their parents are motivated by activities that educate or
improve their childrens safety. Based on the findings from the
personas it became clear to us that for the Fiscals five tips to be
successful the application must teach children how to be cyber safe
but it must also be an enjoyable experience. We made many of our
design choices based off the personas as well as the information
gathered from a brainstorming session.
Wireframes
Splash
Screen
Main Menu
Activity
Page

Page 18

Activity
Selection
Tip
Selection
Tip
Page

Page 19

6.2. Visual Design

The general layout of most pages consists of a title at the top as this is
the general placement to allow people to understand the context of the
page. The main content of the page is placed in the middle of the page
as this is where the eye is drawn to when first looked at.
Visual elements that are carried each page would include the design
elements of having the blue colours as a non-interactive element
whereas orange are able to be interacted with.
The icons in the app include the QPS Logo as this is a design feature
that must be included due to their involvement but only appears at the
start-up of the application. Some other icons are placed as a way of
distinguishing what a particular feature does as some of our target
audiences ability to read may not be suitable when figuring out the
activities purposes therefore given visual cues. In terms of the Main
Menu at the start of the prototype, we learnt from the personas that
many of our audience are quite capable as they have prior experience
with apps and should be able to read the instructions. In case they are
not aware we have included arrow icons to help identify what they
should do.
The graphics in the application included Fiscal and Bacchus as they
were necessary design elements, but the use of them we were able to
link their importance and meaning of cyber safety to fun activities.
Their inclusion gives children something to relate to.

For the visual design a certain style framework was followed in order to
give the user a good experience. This was done by aiming for a clean
page limiting too much text and picture as our main target audience
this would allow us to keep attention and limit distraction.
The colour of the pages is general throughout the application
consisting of a blue background due to its ability to be able to have
both Bacchus and Fiscal be easily seen on top without clashing. The
colour blue also has associations with wisdom and intelligence, which
relate to what is needed for being able to keep cyber safe. The orange
aspects of the app were chosen as it can be easily seen on the blue
background and doesnt clash with the graphics. The colour of the text
was white due to its ability to be easily readable and identifiable over
the other colours chosen.

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The fonts carried over for each page in the app. For the titles of each
page Ahroni was used as it is easily readable and contrasted well with
the graphics style and the other text. For text other than the title
Calibri(body) was used this is because it worked well with the title text
and the style of the graphics used. Thee font size was 24 for heading
and 12 for other information as the personas showed us that most of
our audience already has good reading and comprehension skills we
have included an option to increase font size if necessary.
The Back and Hamburger button were placed as they are a staple in
any modern application. They are placed in a location that many
people know and are easily identifiable as they share the same
conceptual design.
In terms of Audio and animation we have placed audio when you are
clicking on certain aspects of the application, as of right now there is
only one sound but depending on feedback we may add more. We
dont have any animation as we feel they may detract from the
experience but looking at the personas there was a lot of positive
feedback when it came to animations so they may be added in the

next iteration of our prototype.

Figure 1.0 Early prototype to show design.

Page 21

In Figure 1.0 the layout of this is fairly similar to the other app pages
and tries to follows the same framework of being clear and concise
whilst still being visually appealing to grab attention a title is placed on
the top of the screen, an image of the protagonist Fiscal in the centre
where the eye is first drawn to and instructions of where to go directly
below the image as the eye will move down and that will be easily

seen after looking at the image. The visual elements present on this
particular page are the main one of fiscal looking inquisitive in nature
which goes well with the questions underneath it. The colour of this
page is limited the light blue background is used because Fiscal can be
easily seen as well as the white text. This goes back to the framework
of not pushing the limit of too many colours and such which would
serve as a distraction. For the font in the title Ahroni is used as it is
clean and easily readable and fits the question theme. For the body
text Calibri (body) as it suits the heading text and still manages to be
easily readable.
Figure 2.0 Early prototype to show design.
For figure 2.0 the layout is fairly simple the word search and word list
takes up the majority of the page and falls in the middle where the
eyes would be drawn in the first place. The images on the side are for
a sense of familiarity to the characters and apply their message of the
app. The Words of the page is placed at the top to indicate the title of
the app and the activity. The background colour allows the font to be
easily seen over the top. The graphic used for this page include one of

Page 22

Fiscal this is to relate the activity to fiscal since the crossword will have
words and question that relate to Cyber safety you will be able
distinguish the relationship between fiscal and the being safe online.
The amount of text used for the page is fairly limited due to clarity
purposes. The title of the page Word Search uses the font ahroni and
coloured white due to its readability and ability to draw emphasis. The
other text on the page is to be Calibri Body with the colour of the text
being black straying away from the normal white as discussed earlier
due to it being in a white box to keep as a clean look.

Figure 3.0 Early prototype to show design.

Figure 3.0 has the consisted page layout of Title on top, in this case
being the activities due to it being on the activity selection screen. The
content of the page which is the orange buttons is placed in the middle
of the screen and takes up most of the page. A picture of Bacchus is
located at the bottom left to fill in the blank space and make it look
cleaner. The visual elements are consistent with the rest of the app the
blue background will not be interactive whereas the orange will.
Clicking the orange buttons will take you to the activity that
corresponds with the word or icon. The icons used on this page are
related to each activity and can be used to interpret what the activity
does, if one cannot read the words. The Graphic is used as a way to fill
in the blank space and make it look more representable. The style is
carried across from each page and this means that we used limited
amount on stuff on the screen to keep it less cluttered but enough
information to allow the audience to retain their attention. The colour
Page 23

theme is the same consisting of the blue background, orange buttons

and white text. This is also true for the font which consists of ahroni for
the title and calibri body for the other written content.

Page 24

6.3. Prototypes
It has been decided that multiple iterative prototypes will be required
to ensure that the brainstorming and personas are fully utilized in ways
that make sense. Also required, is the ability to share the prototype
with others and to allow others to make updates if needed. Therefore it
was decided that the prototype would be created with Microsoft Office
PowerPoint.
PowerPoint was chosen due to its ease of use and the fact it is installed
on a large number of computers along with the other components of
Microsoft Office, which is installed on most computers. To create the
prototype each slide was treated as a separate screen, with buttons
inside each slide used to link to different slides. Some of the buttons in
the prototype are used as substitutes for gestures where appropriate,
though most are used to show what screen would be moved to when

an element is tapped. To use the prototype as intended the user needs

to view the slideshow.
Transition between slide 2, to slide 4 after the swipe left button is
pressed
The prototypes were also used to ensure that elements that were
decided upon in the visual and structural design worked inside an app
and to ensure that elements could be improved easily. If a superior
design was proposed a new iteration was made to ensure it made
sense when put in an app.

Page 25

Planning Stage
Before creating the app prototype it was decided that in order to meet
the specification given the app would have to focus on a small number
of key ideas. Fiscals five tips would be the focus of the potential app
and would need to be presented in an information format that is easy
and quick to find. There would also need to an interactive component
so that young children could be engaged.
To achieve the goals from the specification a brainstorming session was
held from which we drew the following conclusions. The app prototype
would have to be useable by children and feature design elements that
would appeal to them. These elements include bright colours, easily
identifiable symbol, a font which can be read easily on a screen and
keeping the app simplistic.
The team also used personas to identify key features of the users we
wish to appeal to. We determined that most children have some level
of experience with mobile apps, though some do not. With this
information and the information that not many children are aware of
common design elements, it was decided that all elements would have
to have a very obvious purpose or a quickly reversible outcome. With
the finding that not many children are aware of internet safety despite
a large number using the internet regularly, it shows that the
information must be provided under the assumption of little to no prior
knowledge on the subject. It seems that almost all children notice
design elements such as colour and visual feedback despite them not
actually being aware of the use of them, therefore common design
conventions were still used.
To engage the largest number of children the activities will need to be
interesting while at the same time they need to teach aspects of the
five tips. In the design of activities it was found that simple games
were unable to convey more complex ideas, therefore it was decided
that the activities would range from simple (spot the difference) to
slightly complex (crossword and quiz). The more simple games are
able to convey ideas such as finding things and being observant, the
more complex games require more knowledge from the user, which is
found from looking at the tips in the information focused section of the
app prototype. This also means that no single tip corresponds directly
to an activity, but that the activities have aspects of the tips in them at
varying levels depending on the complexity and depth of the content.

Page 26

Initial Design

In an initial version of the prototype, a simple structure was functional

and little else. This meant that it could be tested to ensure that the
early structure that was decided upon would work in an app. It also
was made to ensure that PowerPoint was capable of being used to
create a functional prototype. This low-fidelity prototype was used to
have an example of the basic functionality and layout of the
application.
When the visual design elements were decided upon, a high fidelity
prototype was made to test if the structure and the visual design
worked together.

Page 27

Later Versions
Multiple iterations of the prototype were made to give an example of
visual elements in the app. When an element was proposed that would
alter the design or structure the prototype would be updated to give a
partially functional example

In an earlier version of the prototype the menu below was used for
activities.
After looking at the app and the personas, it was clear that this would
not be suitable for children of limited reading ability. Thus we decided
to use images to make the activity the user would choose obvious
without needing to read a title.
With icons inside the buttons, the menu item has a more quickly
recognisable destination. It also allows for users who lack the ability to
read well to be able to identify the activity they want to choose.

Page 28

7.

Testing

Date

Author

Time Spent

15/05

All

2 hours

30/05

Blake Gibson

3 hours

02/06

Blake Gibson

2 hours

06/06

Blake Gibson

1 hour

04/06

Aden Murray

3 hours

05/06

Aden Murray

2 hours

06/06

Aden Murray

1 hour

04/06

Adrian Palenzuela

1 hour

This section focuses on the testing of the prototype made for the
previous section. We created a test for people of our target audience to
complete which we hope they will be able to complete and if not will
ensure that the information gained from the results will be helpful for
improving the prototype. After the testing has been completed the
results will be analysed and quantified to find meaningful information.
From this information recommendations will be made which will be
used to make improvements to the prototype for the final design.

Page 29

7.1

Test Plan

Testing Purpose, Goals, and Objectives

The purpose of the test is to ensure that the usability of our application
prototype by allowing testers to attempt to complete a list of tasks
inside the prototype. We will monitor them in the test and synthesise
information from them.
The reasoning behind us testing now is to ensure that our final
implementation of the prototype is able to be used by a wide range of
users, including children who cant read well. From this information
gathered now we should be able to apply changes from the knowledge
learnt.
Research Questions
The research questions come in two forms that being Concerns of the
Development Team which goes over things such as:
-

Young children wont be able to read it

Structure may not make sense to children
Visual design may not be consistent
Are the graphics used in obvious ways?
The second research Questions are ones that need answering and are
directly derived from the feedback gathered by tests, these include:

Can it be navigated easily?

Is the font and text size sufficient?
Are the visual elements obvious?
Participant Characteristics
Group

Desired number of
participants

Demographics
Children

10

Adults

10

Age Group
Age 5-8

4-6

Age 9-12

4-6

Parents

4-6

Teachers

4-6

Reading Ability
None to Minimal

1-2

Page 30

Low

2-3

Standard

15-17

Page 31

Method
Our approach towards testing means that we have gone in a direction
that will involve getting the tester to attempt to use the app to
complete a series of tasks from a premade task list. A moderator will
guide the participant in completing the test when required and an
observer will take notes on their progress. The time taken in order to
do this process should be around 15mins.
- There are a number of pre-test Requirements that both ourselves and
the participants have to follow in order for the tests to work smoothly.
This is a list of what ourselves and our participants have to do:
o Ours
Test document
Participant
Computer
Prototype file
Task list
Legal Documents
o Participant
Fill in legal documents
- Before these tests get underway we have to follow certain guidelines
before we begin the testing process. At the start of the session we will
greet the participant, ask them to sit down and fill out required
documents. We will then tell the participants that we are testing the
prototype not the person of interest, so they dont feel pressured.
- As well as having a specific guideline to follow at the beginning of the
session we also have specific tasks that need to be completed. This
starts by getting the moderator to run through the tasks from the task
list and then helping to guide the participant in the case that any
assistance is required. The observer will write down notes based on
the completion of the tasks
- At the end of the tasks we run over a post -test debrief which we then
ask for feedback and thank them for their contribution.
-

Task List
Task Name

Task Description

Task Benchmarks

Find home

Ask participant to find the

home from splash screen

10 seconds, 0 errors

Find tip 3

Ask participant to find the

third tip from Home page.

1 minutes, 3 errors

Go back to home

From current page ask

user to navigate to the
home screen.

30 seconds, 1 error

Open crossword

From home screen ask

user to go to activity
screen then from there

1 minutes, 3 errors

Page 32

ask them to open the

crossword.
Provide answer to The participant must go
question in quiz
back to activities page
then find the quiz activity
and answer a question
from it.

1 minute, 3 errors

Test environment, equipment, and logistics

The situation under which the session will take place occurs in a room
equipped with a computer that has the prototype pre- loaded, the
participant will use this computer that has standard equipment e.g.
mouse keyboard, speakers, screen etc. The computer will have some
sort of screen capture installed for the session. Therefore the only
equipment required is Screen capture technology, a computer as well
as the test document to write down the results.
Test moderator role
The level of the involvement in which the moderator undertakes is
fairly light their main responsibility is to ask the participant questions.
Meanwhile a silent observer writes down notes on the session. The
moderators other goal is to give assistance if needed this only requires
them to be seated quietly until they are called upon.
Data to be collected and evaluation measures
There are a number of things that will be measured in order to collect
data and then evaluate it. These include:
-

Error rates
Time to complete task
Number of times assistance is required
In order to have a better understanding of the application prototype
and see how to apply this data collected we need feedback on a
number of things including:

o
o
o
o
o

Colour scheme used

Font size and choice
Navigational structure
Graphic choice
Structural choices correct e.g. buttons, lists, burgers

Page 33

7.2.

Test Results and Analysis

I am going to go over in detail each particular task and analyse how

each of the participants differed and how this affected the overall
outcome of the given task.
The first thing done by the moderator was a brief outline of the person
they were testing, this consisted of their name, age and occupation
(teacher, child or parent).While analysing the subjects you could see
trends forming from the data received on each person, such as how the
older the people got they were able to complete the task better, this
was most likely due to being able to comprehend the task more.
Although this information didnt confirm much in terms of the actual
outcome of the tests as there were some outliers, it did however give
some data regarding the participants of the test which could be used
to further hone our application in the right direction in terms of fluidity
and ease of use based on how they handled the test itself. The next
section was more important to how each person performed in the test.
The Pre-test comments is what tied the trends together it went over
things such as the reading- ability, their familiarity with technology
such as websites and applications and a bit of information about each
persons life. Since reading ability is somewhat needed for the use of
each task as a general consensus, the participants that were older
were better at reading and the technology side. This was also true
when it came to being an average parent or a teacher; the teacher was
quicker in completing the tasks since they have experience when it
comes to technology like this.
Comparing the previous information with the times taken to complete
the tasks you can see that there is the trend that teacher completed
the task the fastest with an average of 10secs followed by parents with
an average of 1:12 and then kids aged 9-12 with an average of 1:30
and lastly kids aged 5-8 with an average of 1:45. In terms of mistakes
made the parents and teachers still made mistakes mainly being trivial
things such as miss-clicks, whereas the main focal point of our test
being the children seemed to have a lot more mistakes. This could
stem from their lower reading ability and not being familiar with such
technology, they had mistakes relating to miss-clicking, not fully
understanding the task at hand or not having enough knowledge on
certain things. These are all points that can be fixed.
The post-test feedback focused on how each of the participants
responded to our application prototype and the changes they thought

Page 34

necessary. For the younger audience it was apparent that the colour
scheme was a main issue especially for the girls as they thought it was
too boyish. Another issue found was the choices of the graphics; some
found them rather daunting or too childish to be placed. Another issue
found in this age group were the navigational structure was hard to
comprehend. On the positive side there was a lot of feedback talking
about how the font and icons choices were good. The next audience
group consisting of Parents and Teachers had a lot of positivity
surrounding the prototype saying that the app was well designed but
was clearly designed for kids and perhaps that more comedic approach
would be good.
Certain aspects of the test document were able to give us adequate
feedback which we can then take and use to transform our prototype.

7.2.1

Findings and Recommendations

We tested our application prototype on a diverse pool of participants

from all three levels of our target audience. Our goal was to make
some useful findings from the results and generate recommendations
that could be used to improve our application prototype in future
designs. In order to garner enough results to achieve this we tested the
prototype on a total of twenty people including teachers, parents and
the all important primary school children ranging from ages five to
twelve.
The findings made from these results gave us many changes we could
use to improve our prototype. The most pressing issue we found with
the prototype was regarding the navigation of the application, with
almost all participants making at least one error because of its current
state. These errors ranged from simple miss-clicking to not
understanding the instructions given by the application. It was
recommended that the instructions on the main page to swipe left or
right to reach their desired page be swapped around so that the
instruction to swipe left is on the left side of the screen and the
instruction to swipe right is on the right. Another issue we found was
that many of the female children believed that the colour scheme was
too boyish. It is recommended to use a new colour scheme that is
gender-neutral. Beiges, creams, yellows and greens have been proven
to be among the best colours for achieving this goal.
We also found that the cause of most errors among younger
participants was due to their own minimal reading ability and that the
icons used throughout the application greatly helped them navigate
Page 35

the application successfully. From these two findings we can

recommend that we use icons rather than words wherever possible to
make navigating the application as easy as possible.

Page 36

8.

Final Design

Date

Author

Time Spent

02/06

Daniel Blakesley

2 hours

04/06

Daniel Blakesley

2 hours

05/06

Adrian Palenzuela

2 hours

06/06

Adrian Palenzuela

1.5 hours

Based on the results of user testing in the previous section, a final

Prototype has been designed and developed that incorporates
improvements suggested by the Findings and Recommendations. The
final Prototype can be found in the attached Prototype.pptx file.
To begin with, the background colour of the application has been
completely changed to improve contrast between all content and to
also address the recommendation to reduce the boyish look of the
app.

In direct response to the recommendation regarding the issue of

instruction placement, the directions to where the user has to swipe
had been changed for more obvious user interactions. In addition, the
direction bars color and position had been completely remodelled. The

Page 37

changes included the shape being changed into arrows, the color
changed to green, and an outline was included to create a clearer view
of the item.

With pages containing multiple options, there was a change made

regarding the brightness of the orange background.

Based on the findings of the previous tests results the many of the
words used within the app had been replaced with symbols to create a
greater sense of familiarity with the younger users. In addition, the rule
text was removed from the buttons which linked to information as it
was felt that there was a large amount of unnecessary text.

Page 38

The final design of the prototype is a culmination of all sections

discussed throughout the Brief. Establishing the Target Audience,
constructing a Problem Statement, setting and ultimately meeting
Goals, detailing all aspects of the Alpha Design, as well as Testing and
Evaluating initial prototypes were all essential for the production of the
final design. All the considerations made have created a high quality
design that not only sends its educational message to the user but is
still very enjoyable to use.

Page 39

9. Appendices
A. [Personas Documentation]
Interview Groups (By Role) & Interview Questions
Using the information discussed in Section 3.Target Audience (pg. 7)
the roles that the Personas can be based on have been identified as
Parents, Teachers, Students and Children.
The following are the Interviewees:
Kids
Jemima Hopkins
Jake Hurwitz
Amir Blumenfeld
Benny Schwartz
Thomas Middleditch
Brian Murphy
Dave Rosenberg
Jeff Rosenberg
Emily Axford
Allison Williams

Parents
Kobe Bryant
Mickey Schwartz
John Wolf
Chantelle Jones
Leslie Carmichael

Teachers
Mr Stark
Mrs Johnson
Miss Mendoza

The following were the Interview Questions:

1. How good are
your reading and comprehension skills? (Good/OK/Bad)
2. How experienced
are you with smartphone devices? (Very/Medium/None)
3. Do you have
access to a smartphone? (Always/Sometimes/Never)
4. Do you notice
consistent design elements across multiple apps (e.g. symbols)?
(Always/Sometimes/Never)
5. Do you think
about internet safety? (Always/Sometimes/Never)
6. How often do you
use the internet? (Always/Sometimes/Never)
7. How often do you
use computer or smartphone? (Always/Sometimes/Never)
8. Are you aware of
how internet fraud can be committed? (Yes /No)
9. What do you
think of Fiscal the Ferret? (Good/OK/Bad)

Page 40

10.

Have you

downloaded apps before? (Yes/No)

11.
apps for entertainment? (Always/Sometimes/Never)
12.
enjoy using smart devices? (Always/Sometimes/No)
13.
to use gestures to interact with the device?
(Always/Sometimes/Never)
14.
apps to be colourful? (Always/Sometimes/Never)
15.
enjoy learning? (Yes/Sometimes/No)
16.
to hear audio feedback? (Always/Sometimes/Never)
17.
visual feedback? (Always/Sometimes/Never)

Do you use
Do you
Do you like
Do you like
Do you
Do you like
Do you like

Behavioural Variables
Each roles behaviour variables have been detailed as followed:
a. Students/Children
i. Activities: Learning,
Playing, having Fun
ii. Attitudes: They love
interactive and fun-looking applications
iii. Aptitudes: they are
innocent and can be taught
iv. Motivation: Can be to
learn about safety, can also be that it is fun
v. Skills: Receptive to
interactive activities
b. Parents
i. Activities: Full/Part-Time
Work, Take care of children
ii. Attitude: Positive
attitude, see it as a good platform to educate
iii. Aptitudes: Parenting
iv. Motivation: Childs
Safety They want to protect their children but cannot be
around them all the time so it is important for the children
to know how to be safe
v. Skills: Parenting Skills

Page 41

c. Teachers
i. Activities: Teach the
children, Take care of children
ii. Attitude: Positive
attitude as they want to educate. They see technology as a
good platform to educate
iii. Aptitudes: Caring for
childrens education and development
iv. Motivation: It is their
job and passion
v. Skills: Teaching skills

Page 42

Interview Subject Mapping

a Students/Children
1
How good are your
reading and comprehension skills? (Good/OK/Bad)
Good

Bad

2
How experienced are you with
smartphone devices? (Very/Medium/None)
Very

None

3
Do you have access to a smartphone?
(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Always

Never

4
Do you notice consistent design
elements across multiple apps? (Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

5
Do you think about internet safety?
(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

6
How often do you use the internet?
(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Always

Never

7
How often do you use
computer/smartphone? (Always/Sometimes/Never)
Always

Never

8
Are you aware of how internet fraud can
be committed? (Yes /No)
Yes

No

Page 43

What do you think of Fiscal the Ferret?

(Good/OK/Bad)
Bad

Good

10

Have you downloaded apps before?

(Yes/No)
Yes

No

11 Do you use apps for entertainment?

(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

12 Do you enjoy using smart devices?

(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

13 Do you like to use gestures to interact

with the device (i.e. swiping)? (Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

14
Do you like apps to be colourful?
(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

15

Do you enjoy learning?

(Yes/Sometimes/No)
Emily
Always

Never

16 Do you like receiving audio feedback?

(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Always

Never

17 Do you like visual feedback?

(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Always

Never

Page 44

Page 45

b Parents

& Teachers

1 How good are your reading

and comprehension skills? (Good/OK/Bad)
Good

Bad

2
How experienced are you with
smartphone devices? (Very/Medium/None)
Very

None

3
Do you have access to a smartphone?
(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Always

Never

4
Do you notice consistent design
elements across multiple apps? (Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

5
Do you think about internet safety?
(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

6
How often do you use the internet?
(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

7
How often do you use
computer/smartphone? (Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

8
Are you aware of how internet fraud can
be committed? (Yes /No)
No

Yes

What do you think of Fiscal the Ferret?

(Good/OK/Bad)

Page 46

Bad

Good

10

Have you downloaded apps before?

(Yes/No)
Yes

No

11 Do you use apps for entertainment?

(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

12 Do you enjoy using smart devices?

(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

13 Do you like to use gestures to interact

with the device (i.e. swiping)? (Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

14
Do you like apps to be colourful?
(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Never

Always

15

Do you enjoy learning?

(Yes/Sometimes/No)
Always

Never

16 Do you like receiving audio feedback?

(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Always

Never

17 Do you like visual feedback?

(Always/Sometimes/Never)
Always

Never

Page 47

Page 48

Significant Behaviour Patterns

An obvious behavioural pattern that can be identified from the results
is that the Teachers and Parents answers cluster as they basically have
the same mindset when it comes to the educational purpose and
overall enjoyment of the app. Behaviour and attitudes are almost
identical but it should be noted that emotion plays a greater influence
when it comes to the parents.
The Parents and Teachers compared to the Students/Children have a
number of differences. When it comes to experiences and knowledge
in areas such as technology and fraud, the parents and teachers have
shown to have better understanding. However, there are similarities
when it comes to audio, visual and overall functionality of smartphone
devices.
Synthesis of Characteristics and Goals
Parent/Teachers
o

Persona Name: John Wolf

Age: 35

Location: Broadbeach

Job: Served in
Afghanistan for the US Army for 4 years. Currently a casual
Science Teacher at St Benedicts Primary School & Part Time
Geologist for Tristan Sims International

Status: Married for 7

years

Children: 6 year old girl

and 3 year old son

Goals:
Educate his

daughter and that she actually learns

Page 49

 Protect his
daughter and ensure she has fun
Suggest
app to school to educate his students

o Persona Name: Mr Francisco Stark

Age: 50

Location: Burleigh Heads

Job: Assistant Principal at Marymount Primary School

Status: Divorced

Children: 20 year old daughter

Passionate Teacher for over 30 years, Enjoys fishing

and embraces Technology

Goals:
o Be the principal of the school
o Successfully better the learning
experience of students
o To be the cool teacher

Page 50

Children/Students
o Persona: Jake Hurwitz

Age: 7
Location: Robina
School: Robina State

Grade: Year 1
Goals:
Have fun
Build stuff
Be smarter

Primary School

than his friends

o Persona: Emily Axford

Page 51

Age: 9
Location: Nerang
School: Nerang Primary

School

Grade: Year 3

Plays the violin, Mature

for her age, loves helping others and is an avid open-minded
learner, very diligent and listens to her parents

Goals:

Finish
learning The Bach Chaconne

Want
s to be in the UN like Angelina Jolie

Want
s to teach her 3 year old sister how to behave
o Persona: Amir Blumenfeld

Age: 8
Location: Burleigh Heads
School: Marymount Primary School
Grade: Year 2
Loves Soccer and outdoor activities
Page 52

Very outgoing
Goals:

Play for Manchester United

Win Under 8 Division 1 soccer league

championship

Be taller than his older brother

Page 53

Persona Types
The children/student personas (Jake Hurwitz, Amir Blumenfeld & Emily
Axford) are all Primary Persona types as they are the main targets for
the app. The parent persona, John Wolf, is an example of a Customer
Persona Type as they can be treated as they can be the ones directly
involved with procuring the app or allowing the app to be used by the
children. Teachers can be seen as Supplemental as they can be
presented as stakeholder representatives. They can promote the usage
of the app to the school or to the parents.

Expanded Attribute & Behaviour Description

Children
o Jake Hurwitz
Jake wants to watch Disney forever and wants to be the greatest
minecrafter ever. He is innocent and ignorant and just wants to
have fun and watch TV and play with his toys. He dreads school
in the morning, and then loves it when he gets there as his
friends are there. He does not really know when his actions are
good or bad. He basically only uses his computer to play games
and only uses the internet to look up minecraft tutorials or
cheats.
o Emily Axford
Emily has many friends and knows the distinct difference
between right and wrong and overall has a good moral compass.
She cares for others and never wishes ill will upon anyone, even
those who frustrate her though that rarely happens. She is of the
mindset that family is always first and always does what shes
told even to a fault (as it can be abused by bad relatives). She
uses her computer for games but mostly for research for her
reports or music.
o Amir Blumenfeld
Amir is addicted to soccer as it is all he thinks, talks and dreams
about. He is the best on his team, and loves playing soccer with
his teammates. Amir looks up to his brother and always wants his
family to watch him at his games. Other than playing soccer
games on the computer, he also only uses the Internet to
research his favourite soccer teams and players. Anything else
he can quickly lose interest unless really captivating.

Page 54

Teacher
o Mr Francisco Stark
Francisco has been renowned and praised by students and other
teachers as being the most funniest and best teachers they have
been around. He aspires to give the students of Marymount the
best education possible and is very open to changes and new
implementations, especially when it comes to technology. In his
own household there are a multitude of devices that Francisco
has. Other than fishing, he is always on the computer or phone
or watching TV. Since Francisco loves technology so much, he is
also always searching for new educational technologies that will
be better the education of his students.
Parent
o John Wolf
John is a very positive and Zen man who is content with his life
and grateful for his family. Time spent serving the army has
made him appreciate everything he has and counts them all as
blessings. However, this has also made him very wary when it
comes to taking care of the ones he loves; and though America is
much different to Afghanistan there are still threats and he
knows that he must prepare his children even at such an
innocent age but does so in a fun way. He is content with his 70k
per annum salary as he has made good investments in shares
and has been shrewd with his earnings. He is happier with doing
what he loves to do rather than what he earns.

Page 55

10.

References

[1] Abs.gov.au,. (2015). 4156.0.55.001 - Perspectives on Sport, June

2013. Retrieved 26 March 2015, from
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/4156.0.55.001~June
+2013~Main+Features~Square+eyes+and+couch+potatoes:
+Children's+participation+in+physical+activity+and+screenbased+activities?OpenDocument
[2] Abs.gov.au,. (2015). Error 400. Retrieved 26 March 2015, from
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Products/4901.0~Apr+2012~
Main+Features~Internet+and+mobile+phones?OpenDocumen
[3] KidsMatter,. (2015). Kids online: The statistics. Retrieved 26 March
2015, from https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/health-andcommunity/enewsletter/kids-online-statistics
[4] NewsComAu,. (2015). Rise in number of Australian kids with
smartphones. Retrieved 26 March 2015, from
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/rise-in-number-ofaustralian-kids-with-smartphones/story-fnet085v-1226630247931
[5] Back to school: Apps for primary school children and younger.
(2014) (1st ed.). Istanbul, Berlin, San Francisco. Retrieved from
http://www.adjust.com Retrieved 27 March 2015
[6] Marketing Your Apps To Kids | App Developer Magazine. 2015.
Marketing Your Apps To Kids | App Developer Magazine. [ONLINE]
Available
at:http://appdevelopermagazine.com/1964/2014/10/1/Marketing-YourApps-To-Kids?-Here%27s-What-Parents-Think-Is-Important-/. [Accessed
29 March 2015].

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