Overview:
Read With Me was created as part of my graduate work for Savannah College of Art and Design. It is an interactive platform that connects kids and loved ones together while creating a real-time storybook reading experience
The concept for Read With Me was inspired by my frequent business trips and the desire I had to connect with my daughter while traveling through our favorite activity, reading time. After research, there wasn’t an adequate product in the market that created the level of engagement I desired and I felt this was a problem worth solving. And, I found I wasn’t alone. With over 61% of moms working, parents traveling and families scattered across the globe, children are missing relationship and reading opportunities. Story time is critical to a child’s development of a strong literacy foundation.
Through my discovery process I developed a market analysis, identifying the competitive landscape, product features in market, a target market opportunity and yearly consumer spending habits related to children educational products. Based on this initial discovery, the greatest opportunity for growth was to target parents and grandparents with children in the family between the ages of 2-7. Based off of my initial discovery, I conducted an online survey to test the following product features with parents:
1. Interactive video chat & book platform
2. Video chat, watching recordings & read alone features
3. Parent controlled accounts
4. Pay-as-you-go book buying model
5. Educator curated content
Through my initial discovery process I learned that parents wanted a controlled, trusted environment with quality content. I created detailed personas of our target market to fully develop the features parents and kids wanted most. As a mom, I knew the the design of the interface would need to be customized to adapt to a child’s age and allow for a robust parent controlled experience. For my first stage of development, I created paper prototypes and conducted face-to-face project path testing for children and adults.
To successfully launch Read With Me, I developed a business and marketing plan featuring the following financial model:
Sponsorship
Paid sponsorship model allowing brands to align themselves with content moms care about.
The paid sponsorship model will allow brands to purchase titles and brand the book with their messaging. These sponsored titles will be free to Read With Me’s community and will be highlighted in our featured book section. In addition, sponsored titles will have a blogger engagement campaign to help promote the featured title and brand alignment.
Pre-purchased credits
Pre-purchased credits model allowing families to read more books for less.
The pre-purchased model will mirror a similar structure to other media-selling platforms, allowing users to pre-purchase credits. This feature will provide an optional monthly auto load function. The model will offer a cost savings for the community, providing additional credits as added value when readers purchase at least $25.00 worth of credits.
Pay-per-title
Pay-per-title model allowing minimal commitment, reducing barriers for reading trial.
The pay-per-title model will offer readers titles at full price but does not require a large commitment for participation. This model will help reduce the barriers for trial and enable users to experience the site at their own pace.
The brand experience for Read With Me includes the following features:
Video chat interactive book reading sessions
Allows for two users to read a book together from two different computers or devices.
Recorded interactive book reading sessions
Allows for the video chat to be recorded or for the user to record themselves reading the book.
Literary favorites available for interactive experience
Featured books would allow parents to purchase loved children’s books.
Up and coming children’s books available for interactive experience
Site will accept unpublished authors to allow parents access to the latest in children’s literature.
Parent controlled accounts for kids
Site allows for parents to control their child’s account library, friend list and book money allowance.
Customized themes for profile pages
Site allows for users to customize their profile page with 5 different themes.
No monthly fees
Site allows for users to use a pay-as-you-go model (buying books one at a time) or loading their account with a book allowance.
Read With Me was selected as a featured project by Savannah College of Art and Design. The opportunity allowed me to present my project to potential investors to launch the platform. The project is currently under consideration by an interactive digital agency for development.
Role: Researcher, Strategist, Creative Director, UI Designer, Graphic Designer and Programmer.
Graduate Work: Savannah College of Art and Design