Initial user feedback for front end

write-to-speak-static-user-feedback

Users: Jill, Stan, Amanda

Users Answer My Questions:

1. What sort of user would find this application valuable or interesting?
   ALL: Kids, people with speech problems. 
   JILL: Shy kids. 
   AMANDA: Amanda's four-year-old (who enjoyed it with his mom's help).

2. Did you encounter any bugs or anything that did not work as you think it should? 
   JILL:   Sometimes the message area did not display a message after I saved or changed a snippet but other times it did. 
   AMANDA: Once I started to write a new one but clicked Talk without saving. Pop-up asked if I wanted to save and I decided not to, 
           but instead of going to a new screen, I got a blank screen.
   
3. Was anything confusing or difficult to figure out? 
   JILL:   After I edited one, I expected to be able to click a snippet to make it talk. Instead, I was still in editing mode, 
           so it put the text into the edit box.
   STAN:   Was surprised once when clicked button in edit mode and it did not speak. Quickly figured it out though.
   AMANDA: No instructions, but easy to figure out by trying each button.
   
4. Would you yourself find it useful? 
   JILL:   Maybe if I wanted to literally hear the flow. It would be more useful to me to have a full-featured word
           processor that also talked, or a plug-in for MS Word that talked, rather than having to cut and paste. But I can 
           imagine kids would have fun with it.
   STAN:   No.
   AMANDA: Yes, for my kids. Good way to interest Jason in writing with the computer.
   
5. Are there particular situations where it would be especially useful, either for you or for another type of user? Please elaborate:
   JILL:   For handicapped people, it could help them speak. For people with writer's block, it might help to hear what they wrote so 
           far or to try several different ways to say something and listen to each to compare.
   STAN:   When spelling is added, it could help dyslexic students.
   AMAMDA: It is a fun way for kids to practice writing. I can imagine two or three kids working together to add little stories
           and fun, even silly, things for the computer to read back.

6. How could this app/software be improved?
   ALL:    Spell check.
   JILL:   Ability to turn off the speech part of user feedback.
   STAN:   Pictures to select to represent the text.
   AMANDA: a) Ability to group and reorder snippets. b) Some way to send snippets to other kids.

What I learned:

   Being able to save snippets opens up possibilities I had not thought of for sharing snippets between users as a way to send each 
   other messages.

   Trying to set a flag in the store to indicate whether a message should appear on the NEXT page is a bad idea because setting it 
   changes the state by default, and getting around it involves anti-pattern and unnecessarily complex code, which is a bad idea.
   Instead, set a simple flag in local storage, as setting and resetting the flag there is very simple.

What I did in response to feedback: 

   Fixed bug in when feedback appeared by setting flag in localStorage for whether or not feedback should appear on the next page.
   
   Changed color of snippets on Edit page to a different one from that on the Talk page.
   
   Added other suggestions to Phase 2.