Associate Producer, Leapfrog, 2004-2005
I produced the first ink-in, audio-out math instructional product called Fly Through Math. LeapFrog, an educational toy company, decided to bring an entirely new product to market where kids could write on special paper and receive instruction on various subjects. I designed the multiplication and division title with a small team of producers and engineers.
I came onto the team once the initial product had been pitched and scoped. I had been a third and fourth grade teacher for three years and naively thought that the initial product spec meant that the product had been defined. Nine months later, we finally had ironed out all the details.
The Problem
The promise of Fly Through Math was that students could use the Fly Pentop to do their assigned math homework. They would enter the problems onto the paper and receive instruction, when needed, on how to solve them. Our team identified a number of issues, including:
- How do we best teach kids to multiply and divide?
- What are the unique issues of an ink-in interface?
Our team set out to address these issues through a combination of focus groups, kid testing (user research), and technical investigation.
This was a first-generation product. Therefore, we also had the problem of a constantly changing environment because the hardware was evolving while the OS was being written and we were working on a title. Our weekly sync-up meetings across all divisions and groups touching the project resulted in changing standards and best practices. We all had to keep up, syncing up with our counterparts frequently to ensure the final product was a cohesive experience.
What I Did
This was my first technical product as I made the transition from classroom teacher to UX designer. I had a lot to learn, from how to use Visio to how to work with engineers.
I quickly established myself as a strong analytical thinker and was assigned the Division workflow, which had the most permutations and ways for kids to “go off the rails.”
Division and Multiplication Permutations
Each of the solutions above are appropriate and correct, depending on a kid’s familiarity with the subject, their teacher, and their preference. Therefore, we had to support all of them. We also were shipping internationally, so I interviewed various international employees to learn how they were taught how to do multiplication and division. Division especially had variations in other countries I had never seen in the US.
I worked in Visio and the proprietary script software to lay out the logic for each of the solutions, including all the error prompts for what to say if a user wrote an incorrect answer or in an incorrect space, and then partnered with our engineers to ensure the product was coded properly. I also QA tested the product to make sure we really did cover all the use cases.
User Testing
We had a wonderful collaboration with a nearby after school program so were able to conduct user testing every week. Our team took full advantage of the opportunity to sit with kids and see how they responded to the product, even before we had any hardware.
We first tested in teams. I played one of two roles. Sometimes I was the facilitator, giving the users problems and then asking them about their experience. Other times, I pretended to be the system, reading out our scripted phrases based on the user’s behavior. Kids were great test subjects; they were happy to suspend disbelief and give us incredible feedback.
Once we had the real hardware, we learned that a key issue with the interface was the risk of users getting out of sync with the system.
Staying in Sync
Based on our kid testing, we crafted prompts to alert kids that their problem might not fit on the page. We also let them know when they were writing in an area the system wasn’t expecting. This was usually due to a misrecognition error, where the user wrote a digit or symbol, but the pen didn’t recognize it. This was the most critical issue because, without mitigation, the user would think they were solving one problem (e.g., 120 x 4) and the system would be expecting another (e.g., 12 x 4). I was tasked with making sure these cases were documented and implemented properly.
What Shipped
Fly Through Math shipped in 2005 and went on to help many kids with their homework and win awards for innovation and utility.
The Fly Pentop Computer won Toy of the Year, Educational Toy of the Year, and Innovative Toy of the Year. It also received the Parents’ Choice Silver Honor.
Insights
One final lesson I learned on this first tech project was the importance of fighting for what you believe in. Our production team was all women, unusual for technology and not what many expected for a math product. We all agreed it was really important to support girls in having a positive image of math and to make it as fun for them as it was for us.
A technical constraint for the Fly was the small cartridge size and limited memory. We spent weeks cutting and optimizing lines of dialog so the audio would fit on the cartridge chip. It was recommended that we use a male actor for the voice of the product because male voices compress better than women’s. A male narrator would give us more dialog lines to work with. However, we didn’t like the idea of only having a male voice on a math product.
We decided to use two actors: a male actor for the variable content, which included the actual instruction of how to enter and solve the problem. We used a female actor for the non-variable content, the hints and other tips. She also taught the user, but through catchy mnemonic devices. For example, she might say the static line, “It’s time to add. Start with the ones.” The male narrator would then say, “What’s 5 plus 0?”
This creative solution maintained a gender balance while also staying within the technical constraints. It was a great initial lesson on how to work within the confines of the space and still have an outstanding product that meets your ideals.