Storyline Online is a website that features selected picture books for young children, viewed in a streaming video format. All picture books are narrated by prominent American actors and the videos feature animation of some of the pictures which aids the storytelling process. Additionally, each book is provided with an online supplementary learning material booklet pdf file, made for classroom activities. The website is designed by the Screen Actor’s Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, an American labor union for actors and is funded through gifts and donations due to it being non-profit in nature.

The goal of Storyline Online is to aim to improve young children’s reading literacy. The website states that the audience they are trying to reach are classroom teachers, children’s hospitals and parents. The website correlate’s its success by the awards that were given to them such as the best website award from American Association of School Librarians.

One key strategy in building an effective website for children is to understand the behaviours at the targeted age (Blackwell et al, 2014, p.2). Storyline is aimed at kindergarten to grade 4, which is 5-8 years of age. At this age it can be assumed that most children will be accessing the website with adults such as parents, teachers and guardians due to limited ability with technology. The ages of 4-6 are most likely going to enjoy being read to, which makes the story time videos and the diverse range of stories contained on the website likely to be effective in engaging this age. However, the supplementary activities are more suitable for the older children of 6-8 years, as most of them contain craft activities and contains questions that need some reasoning.

Overall the website is divided into several sections: the homepage, book catalogue, information about the organization and a blog. It contains features such as email subscriptions, search functions and donation options. In a Japanese study of designing library webpages for young adults, they believed that the key qualities of a good webpage for young people is current, simplistic, educational, themed appropriately for the age group and easy to navigate (Kanazawa, 2014, p.280).The homepage’s layout is very similar to a featured books list that are part of a catalogue of a library or book shop website. The process for selecting picture books from the homepage is very similar in a reader’s selection of a physical picture book as they view the cover illustrations first before deciding.

The online book catalogue can be sorted by author, reader, title and run time. One effective feature of the book catalogue is the suggested grade level that is attached to the record description of each picture book. This allows users to select the book that is most appropriate for their reading abilities. However, as the website focuses on producing high quality videos of these stories, there are only 55 picture books to choose from the collection. This number is a good starting point for early readers but is unlikely able to sustain them in the long term.

However, the blog part of the website only serves as a small blurb introduction for some feature picture books. It does not have areas for comments and does not contain blog posts outside of these blurbs.

The videos are hosted on the online video sharing platforms of YouTube, SchoolTube and Vimeo. They strive to achieve a virtual simulation of a story time event like those held at libraries. The advantages of the video format are highlighted in the animations of some of the pictures in the book, along with additional audio elements.

When designing websites for children, accessibility of a website is important factor. In a study of preschooling aged children interacting with electronic picture books, tablets were identified as effective devices as they are easier to use for children (Zipke, 2017, p.1695). Storyline Online’s mobile website design is reliant on users downloading it’s app. The mobile app functions on an even more simplistic level compared to the website. It is child friendly as all the child has to do is select the picture cover of the book that they are interested in and the app will link it directly to the story time video.

Some potential improvements in the website’s design could be a recommended section for other books related to the one that you are viewing. This will allow users to continue finding similar books that they enjoy. Adding subject headings and tags for each book can improve the catalogue. 

Overall Storyline Online is a basic but effective website in promoting the love of reading to young children through online story time videos, improved by audio and visual elements.

 

Reference List

Blackwell, C., Lauricella, A., Conway, A., & Wartella, A. (2014). Children and the internet: developmental implications of web site preferences among 8-to-12 year old children. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 58(1), 1-20. doi: 10.1080/08838151.2013.875022

Kanazawa, M. (2014). An evaluation of young adult web pages in public library websites in Japan. Public Library Quarterly, 33(4), 279-295. doi: 10.1080/01616846.2014.970106

SAG-AFTRA Foundation Production Team. (2019). Storyline Online. Retrieved from https://www.storylineonline.net/library/

SAG-AFTRA Foundation Production Team. (2019). Storyline Online. Retrieved from https://www.storylineonline.net/about-us/

SAG-AFTRA Foundation Production Team. (2019). Storyline Online. Retrieved from https://www.storylineonline.net/blog/

SAG-AFTRA Foundation Production Team. (2019). Storyline Online. Retrieved from https://www.storylineonline.net/books/carlas-sandwich/

Zipke, M. (2017). Preschoolers explore interactive storybook apps: the effect on word recognition and story comprehension. Education and Information Technologies, 22(4), 1695-1712. doi: 10.1007/s10639-016-9513-x