John's first use of the prototype

Today John has tested the prototype. Before giving the prototype to John, his parents explained him that it is a pen used for learning purposes. The first step was to switch on the pen, something that John could not achieve as he didn't know that the button had to be pressed for a few seconds. After a while, with the help of his father, John managed to switch on the pen and said the word "cat", a word that he thoroughly practiced at school. After he succesfully wrote that word, he looked very amazed with the "rewarding" animation and tune.

After that, his father instructed him to shout a new word but this time harder than the previous one. John thought of the word "snake" but repeatedly failed to write it down, not knowing what goes next after the letter "a". Finally, after his several failed attemps, the pen tipped him off the letter "k" and then was able to complete the word. His reaction about the tip was overwhelming, because before the tip he seemed very desperate for not knowing what letter was next in line.

Even though John did not complain for the thickness or texture of the pen, his mother realized that his handwriting was different than his usual. However, John was very pleased with the prototype. Not letting the pen go off his hands, it seemed like he was treating it as a toy.

Gloria tries the prototype

Gloria was given the pen to try out. Her initial response was somewhat indifferent. She didn't seem to react to the pens design and look as the other children did. However, when she realized it was no ordinary pen she was excited to give it a try and find out just what it can do. She was told how to use it but she didn't seem to pay attention to her parents, she was too eager to play with it. Hopefully she would figure it out herself once she got to work with it for a while.
She was trying to turn it on but couldn't figure out that the on/off button needed to be held pressed so her father told her how to do it. Once turned on the pen prompted her to speak a word to spell out. She spoke the word "house" and the pen repeated "house". After a slight delay the pen said "h" and displayed the letter "h" on the screen. Gloria then attempted to "draw" the letter "h". After lifting the pen it sounded the letter "o" which Gloria successfully wrote again. Upon reaching the letter "s" however, Gloria could not draw it correctly so the pen kept informing her that she drew it incorrectly. After 3 consecutive unsuccessful tries, Gloria got frustrated and threw the pen across the table and left eventually breaking the pen.

Gloria's experience with the pen was not a success. It showed us that, although built to be as simple as possible, the pen may seem complicated to certain individuals of the target age. Additionally, this experience showed us that, to someone who doesn't really want to learn and sees the product as a toy, the pen can be annoying and frustrating to use. However since the pen is marketed as a learning tool and not as a toy, this drawback cannot be considered serious.

Emma's experience with the prototype

Emma has just had her first experience with a prototype of the pen.

She really liked the design of the pen and the pink colour with white clouds, that was this pens design, really appealed to her. At first she thought that it was just a fancy pen and asked why would we want to test a pen. When we explained to her what the pen was about she wanted to try it immediately so that she could write a letter to her father.

By her motions one could clearly see that she found the pen a bit heavy at first but with time she got used to the little extra weight.

She instinctively pressed the button on the top of the pen to start writing. She was surprised that the pen spoke to her and told her to say the word she would like to write. She said the word 'daddy'. Following the instructions spoken by the pen she wrote a few letters. When she reached the letter 'y' she paused because she did not know how to write the letter 'y'. The pen, after some time of not detecting letters, prompted Emma to look at the LCD screen for the shape of the letter. Emma looked at the pen and saw the shape of the letter on the screen.

Emma was glad that the pen was able to help her to complete the word. She felt like she accomplished something and the celebration tunes and animation encouraged her to celebrate.

Emma was left with the pen for hours to complete a letter for her father. She was very proud that she accomplished to write a whole letter by herself and even more happy when she saw her fathers expression when he read the letter.

Persona no. 3 - Gloria Mercury

Gloria Mercury is 6 years old. Her father, George, is a mechanic and her mother, Katherine, is an English teacher. She is quite smart for her age but is an average student because she doesn’t like doing school work much.

Her younger sister, Angela, is 5 years old and they fight all the time and break each other’s things. Her room is always untidy and her mother is always telling her to clean it and be nicer to her sister.

Her favourite colour is red. She likes playing outside in the street with her friends which is how she spends most of her afternoons. Her parents are always telling her to study more and be more polite but they both have to work a lot so Gloria isn’t always supervised. When she is at home she spends most of her time watching TV rather than doing her homework. When she grows up she wants to be an actress which she uses as an excuse to avoid studying.

Her mother is thinking about sending Gloria to private afternoon classes so she can catch up with her work but her father doesn’t agree. He believes their daughter should learn to study and be a good student by herself and tries to find ways of making her school work seem interesting.

Say hi to John McCann

John McCann is five years old and lives with his parents in Birmingham. His father, Tom, is a pollice officer and his mother, Maria, is an artist.

John is a student at Pascal Junior School and he is considered to be a very bright student with lots of potentials. A few months ago he won the first place in a painting contest in his class. Apparently he has a raw painting talent inherited from his mother. Maria has high hopes for her son and strongly insists that in a couple of years his age would be ideal for his talent to be matured through private lessons. However, John's father argues that his son should get into sports as every normal child at his age does. Johns' parents have reached to an agreement to let him decide in the near future.

During the weekends, John spends a lot of his time with his cousin who lives right next door. His aunt is helping them to improve their spelling and to learn new words because she believes that schools do not do a satisfying job. On the other hand, his uncle always labels her as a perfectionist and suggests giving the kids more playing time with other kids in the neighbourhood for shaping a normal social life.

John has never raised any problems at his home. He is a very kind child, never lies and always does what he is told to by his parents. He even helps his parents with the housework.

Everybody meet Emma Goodfella

Little Emma is 5 years old and she lives at Birmingham with her parents. Emma's father is a businessman and he travels a lot. Her mother is a house-wife and most of the times she is at home.

Emma attends a private school at Sutton Coldfield. She is a good student and well behaved. She is trying to learn how to spell and write. Emma likes to dance to the beat of music and play with her dolls. Her favourite colour is pink and she loves wearing dresses and trying on her mothers make up.

Emma wants to go to dance lessons but her mother disagrees and she wants her to learn to play the piano instead. Emma misses her father as most days he is away or late at the office. She would like to spend more time with him.

Emma likes her room to be tidy and everything at its place. When she finishes playing with her dolls she puts everything back at its place. She likes to go to her fathers office and pretend to be her secretary. She often tries to write him letters or make him drawings and puts them on his desk to read them.