The Idea: Understanding the ProblemIf you have ever missed someone in your family circle because work or college or illness or summer camp separated you, then you have experienced the problem of trying to feel close to someone while apart. Geographical distance sometimes introduces the additional problem of being in different time zones. Phone calls and video calls are good for conversations, hearing each others voices, and sharing precious moments, but the time zone issue can render this solution impractical. Now, consider trying to bond with a small child. Common forms of social media, such as Facebook, are for people that can read.
When the concept of Tele-Story occurred to me, I reached out to family and friends to determine if creating a personalized audiobook for the small children in their lives was appealing. I asked the basic series of if-when-why would you use it questions. These brief interviews helped identify applicable scenarios:
|
Download the PDF above for more detailed information.
|
Existing Solutions
These scenarios seem so commonplace that I was certain a solution for the problem must already exist. I quickly discovered that personalized recordable hardcopy books are currently on the market.
Other existing solutions aimed at addressing this problem provide support for delayed interaction between family circle members. In these solutions, the users can leave each other audio messages, and with some applications, they can include photographs. These solutions encourage anecdotal conversations, such as grandpa talking about his first day at school, or precious moment sharing, such as a child showing her certificate she earned at school.
Other existing solutions aimed at addressing this problem provide support for delayed interaction between family circle members. In these solutions, the users can leave each other audio messages, and with some applications, they can include photographs. These solutions encourage anecdotal conversations, such as grandpa talking about his first day at school, or precious moment sharing, such as a child showing her certificate she earned at school.
The Tele-Story Niche
I circled back to family friends to find out how the Tele-Story concept compared to the existing solutions. The parents of small children listed benefits they deem more appealing with the Tele-Story concept than the other delayed interaction options:
- They like the tradition of reading books aloud to small children
- Playing the books again and again was more appealing than playing a message again and again
The Tele-Story Solution
Provide a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution to build a library of children’s e-books transformed into personalized audiobooks in the cloud for a family and close circle of friends to share. Ease-of-use is key focus in the areas of book selection, personalization, voice recording, posting, and notification. Simplicity will be key for initial set up and configuration.