For my project interaction, we worked together with the Amsterdam Public Library (OBA). For this, we designed VOCAB. VOCAB is a solution for children who are learning Dutch as a second language. It helps to develop their vocabulary by means of a Voice User Interface (VUI). The ages of the children are between 6 and 11 years old.

The preliminary study

In the preliminary study, we researched our target group. Questions like what is expected of these children at school in terms of language and what do they already know. How do children learn new words, etc?

It turned out that children learn new words more easily by having a visual image and by repeating them. We have therefore designed the product in such a way that children do not have to read much. But they can hear everything, with supporting pictures. During the research, we also found out that privacy is important. So if you want to use this, the best is to build your own voice assistant.

The concept

Here in the picture you can see an example of how the child will see it. A small image with a parrot talking to you and then a button with questions if you really can’t work it out. The parrot keeps talking to you and as soon as you don’t talk, a sound wave appears. This moves as long as you talk.

You can also see in the picture a CMS system that we have designed for teachers, so that they can prepare words for the children, so that they really learn words that they do not know yet. So the teacher also receives feedback on what the child does and does not know and can therefore also teach more effectively.

Test stage

During this stage, we were able to see whether what we had thought up and researched actually works in practice. During the test we came to the conclusion that the children did not really understand when they were allowed to talk and that it was going a bit fast. We have adjusted our new prototype accordingly.