The impression our team had regarding the purpose of BigWords has changed slightly over the semester. In our initial clickable prototype, we focused on solely the caregiver’s account, tracking words and books only for the account as a whole. However, our client quickly expressed interest in tracking words and books for individual children instead of just the account, so we made this adjustment by adding buttons to switch between children on the “My Words” tab of the website. We had discussed the possibility of connecting caregiver and children accounts, so children can see their own books and words on a personal account, but this would be a lower priority and it is unclear if this will be possible by the end of the semester.

We have become more excited about BigWords during the process of working on the application. As features come to life, we can see how this will benefit caregivers and children long term. Our client’s mission with BigWords is to provide caregivers with a platform to receive feedback on the quantity and quality of words children hear in storybook reading. Our application gives caregivers this platform, with the ability to track books that have been read to their children over time. This will help naturally expand child’s vocabulary and keep their list of exposed words expanding.

Features that are most important to our client are big word and word count, as well as a list of these words, a library to see books that have been previously read, and ability to search for books based on book title or specific words. Visualizing with a list the words children have been exposed to can help caregivers see what words their children have heard many times, as well as words they have heard few times. Caregivers can then choose books based on this information and in turn help expand their child’s vocabulary.