Feedback on Illustrated Spreads

After completing a good chunk of the spreads in my book, I then proceeded to seek some feedback on what I have completed so far. I printed off the spreads to date on my printer at home. I then gave them to my sister who brought them into her primary school class.

The children loved the characters. Most of them had heard different drafts of the story, so to put a face to the name was wonderful for them. They thought Gonzo was friendly and funny looking. I was initially worried about the kids finding Clancy Cat too scary but they didn’t. They acknowledged he was a bold cat and found him intimidating. They knew exactly what was happening in each spread.

My sister went through each page with them to see if they could follow the story and this was successful. Of course a couple of children still stumbled with the words and some phrases, but this was then used as a teaching tool where they could learn.

As well as this, I also tested these spreads out on my family and friends, all of whom are a mix of ages varying from 5 – 65. They provided me with some valid feedback on changes to make in the book. This was mostly to lighten the dark pages slightly as well as altering the ‘danger’ page.

Approach to Prototype Testing

There was one main approach that stuck out for me in regards to testing the prototype. This was to make it seen to as much children in my target audience as I possibly could. I contacted a lot of my young family that I tested the story on initially as well as asking my sister to show the class she teaches in her school. I asked my friends who have young siblings and family members to show the prototype to them. I ultimately wanted to discover if the children were interested in the character of Gonzo, if they thought the pages were visually appealing and whether or not they would like to see more of it.

The book is for children, however, I feel that an adults input is also extremely valid for gathering solid feedback and constructive criticism. I put the prototype to a lot of my friends and my family members also by developing a small survey on Survey Monkey. I sent the link to the survey along with my prototype to approx. 25 of my friends/family. Altogether 20 people completed the survey, which I was very happy with. I will discuss the feedback from the survey in the following section.

 

Storyline Feedback 3 (different Literacy Standards)

As my sister is a resource teacher in a Primary school, she had the opportunity to read the next draft of my story to two of her small classes, one of which is below the standard english reading level and the other who are above average. I felt this to be of huge advantage for me.

The higher level were able to completely read the story themselves, which I was very happy about. The children that were below average at reading were also able to read some lines and just needed help on some of the more difficult ones. My sister explained that this was very helpful as it provided an educational aspect where there was opportunity for them to learn new words and sounds. I was very content with this feedback as I was worried that the storyline might be of a standard too high. Both classes also loved the character of Gonzo even though it was just on paper. The found the name to be humerous and appealing.

 

Storyline Feedback 2

Although I know my storyline is not 100% perfect, I feel this draft to be more of a finalised idea than previously. I am happy with the story and know that changes can be made throughout the process and down the line but for the moment, I can begin working more on the design process alongside the second draft.

After I wrote the second draft of Gonzo the Guard Dog, I felt it necessary to get feedback from children within the age group of my target audience. I feel that feedback is a hugely important factor that will help the flow and progress of my project. As I am writing and designing for young children, I am aware that I need to keep going back to children in my age group and checking that everything I do is appealing for them in both the story and the visuals.

I chose a selection of children to ask the questions to. Firstly, I have cousins of a variety of ages on my Dads side of the family. I emailed my aunts and uncles the story of Gonzo the Guard Dog along with a set of questions and space for writing answers. This was handy as they could then simply just print of the pages and email me back their children’s answers after they read them the story to them or after they read it themselves (age dependent). This saved us the trouble of organising to meet up, as everyone works on different schedules.

My cousins vary in age from 3-10 so their feedback was mixed. The main feedback that I got was very good. I was delighted that my cousins over the age of 7 could read the story perfectly, with just small slip-ups on the larger words. My younger cousins loved the story and the character. I asked the question of “Why was Gonzo so proud at the end of the story?” and two of my younger cousins both said along the lines of “gonzo wasn’t afraid anymore” and “He overcame his fears”. my older cousin at the age of 12 said “Gonzo felt confident at the end”. These were exactly the responses I was hoping for. It shows that they understood the underlying message.

My sisters friend works in a primary school in Maynooth where she has a full class of 7 year olds (2nd class). This was an ideal opportunity. She read the story to the class who all seemed very interested. They were alert and listened all the way through she said. Most of the children understood that Gonzo was happy because he wasn’t scared anymore. They then went on to discuss their own fears and when the children have faced fears before. She told me it was a very enjoyable story to of done with them in the classroom as it was very open for discussion afterwards where they learned more.