Kinder Surprise Storymakers website feedback thread - £250 voucher prize draw for testers NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

This thread is for the 100 Mumsnetters who are trying out the Kinder Surprise Storymakers website.

Here’s what Kinder Surprise’s brand manager says: “We've designed a new website to give parents a fun and simple tool to create stories with their kids. Each story will be unique and personalised with your child’s name on it. You can share the story with friends & family online, download and print, and there are thousands of storybooks to be won - so lots of lucky families will have a hard copy of their personalised book sent to their door!”

Below are the questions we’d like testers to answer but please feel free to add any other comments which you may have.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?
Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?
Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

Everyone who adds their feedback below will be sent their own hard copy storybook of the story they created on the Storymakers website and also be entered into a prize draw to win a £250 Love2Shop voucher!

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

Sorry posted too quickly!

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

Yes, it's a good way to inspire reading and creating a story. I liked the way you can add your own dialogue. This would have been excellent for an older child to broaden their imagination. It's a very creative website and I'm sure with a few tweaks to the loading speed it will be a hit. We have gone back to it everyday and created new stories

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?

we enjoyed it, it was well set out and simple to use

Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?

We took Alan the dinosaur to meet a Satelite, a singing Starfish and a squirrel

Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?

She loved it :)

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

Yes, it was great fun and the ability to personalise the story really engaged with my daughter

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?
It was bright and colourful. Pretty easy to get started. If you leave it for a few minutes then you sometimes get errors - is something timing out? I had a story disappear from the library, the sound effects didn't always work and the log out button didn't work sometimes. Starting again in a new window seemed to fix these problems but we did have to rewrite a story from scratch. I got a "not logged in" message when I tried to download a story as pdf at one point too.

Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?
DD (age 6) wrote about a dragon called Rainbow Fire. She chose some of the default options for the chapter endings but also enjoyed making up her own endings. We hit the 140 character limit a couple of times and the text box started disappearing behind the character she was "meeting", which required a bit of juggling.

Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
She enjoyed it, but I think she might have preferred a bit more flexibility. I had a go at writing a story myself so tried out a few of the other characters and options. I think you'd be able to create perhaps 3 or 4 stories before she got bored by the formula. She's probably at the top end of the age range though.
She really enjoyed putting the extra pictures on the page and arranging them. Would it be possible for the user to be able to resize the pictures? The different coloured options of each type of picture were different sizes so she found it tricky to match them up when putting different coloured pictures together.

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
Yes, it's well worth a visit and fun to do, if not always perfect. I'm not sure it has much appeal for multiple visits because of its lack of flexibility though.

To say it was a "personalised" story, I'd have preferred her name to be mentioned a bit more. It's on the cover and on the back page (which is the same every time it seems). Perhaps it would be possible to design an avatar for the child and include them as one of the characters in the story?

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?
I thought it was fantastic. My son (age 5) loved it. He loves writing stories so this was right up his street. It was colourful, easy and fun to use.
Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?
Jamie the car goes on some adventures and meets new friends along the way.
Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
He really enjoyed using the website and really loved the process of writing his own story. He often does this at home with paper stapled together. I think there could be more stories with different themes, as after making 3 books, my DS didn't want to make any more. He really enjoyed it to begin with, but I think the novelty wore off. This could be fixed by having different stories/themes for example.
Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
Yes, I would recommend this to friends as we got a lot of enjoyment out of it.

Some additional points.

I wish it was possible to amend the story once it was created. I noticed some mistakes once it was complete and the only way of fixing this was by deleting the story maker (my DS) and starting again. This was laborious when it was just a spelling error on one page. It would also be beneficial to delete one book at a time.

We added in DS's name, and his brother's name on a page where we were able to write our own chapter ending to have their names mentioned (other than on the front and back of the book). But it would have been good if it was possible to choose a boy or girl character and use this as the DC avatar to make the book more personalised.

I would have liked the option to pay to get the books printed into hard copy. I'm lucky to have been chosen to be part of the review and will receive a book, but granparents would like a copy, and I'd like a copy for my younger DC.

Also at the end, when the character arrives home, it would be excellent to have the option to input our home address, and/or names of siblings/friends so it was really personalised.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?

Bright, bold and child friendly. It's colourful and fun and my dd (3) seemed to be taken in by it. It was very slow on my tablet, so we had to use an iPad which was a bit better but still a bit slow. On the tablet especially, I would press buttons and it wouldn't respond ( which it doesn't do on other websites). Also I wanted to go back and change things but every time I did it said I needed to save first, but I couldn't see where to do that. So I ended up starting the story again.

Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?

It was about (dd2's name) the little dog who goes on adventures to the sea, desert and other places.

Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?

She really enjoyed it. She liked putting items on the page and choosing colours. She liked choosing her characters and where they went. She wrote one simple line herself but the rest she chose from the options. It's a lovely idea for a website. It would be better if you could develop the story lines more.

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

Yes it's a good website, but like others have said it would be nice to have the option to buy the books I would recommend it more if you could. It's a shame to make a book you can't buy.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website? Very colourful, bright and fairly easy to use. I did have to instruct him quite a lot in making it, but that's only because he cannot read yet.
Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website? It was about a dinosaur called Goodday who went exploring in the forest, at the seaside, in space and under the sea. Along the way he met a squirrel, a seagull, a spacedog and a starfish.
Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story? It was good, easy to use and fun. He seemed to really enjoy making the story with Mummy's help and loved being able to add characters and objects to the book. Although, he did insist on having one of everything! :-)
Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not? Definitely, it was easy to use, free and you can make lots of different stories. It's a great way to interact with your children, whilst they can use their imagination and learn to read in a fun way.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?
My daughter really liked the website and said she felt as though she had experienced an adventure when the book was complete. We found it fairly straightforward to use.

Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?
Our story was about a dog who went on an adventure under the sea, then into space, he met a puffer fish and a hen.

Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
She really enjoyed it and was able to complete the process with minimal assistance from me - she's 5. She used some of the pre-printed text but also made some of her own words up.

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
Yes, I would recommend this as she had fun completing it. I liked the way you can gain confidence in story writing and start to be more creative with your own words.Some of the humour was a bit lost on her though!

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?
It was fun and colourful - I'm not sure of the longevity of it but DS aged 5 and I enjoyed half an hour writing it together.
Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?
We had Puffy the toy dragon who travelled around and met a few characters.
Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
He was really drawn into it and particularly enjoyed making all the choices himself, although he wasn't wanting to write his own endings yet.
Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
Probably would, it was a bit different and DS seemed to have fun.

q1.What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?

Nicely designed, mfairly easy to navigate. Pleasing lack of branding.
Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?

DS chose cars for both stories and sent them off adventures in the jungle, outer space, farm, etc.
Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
DS was surprisingly keen. He found it simple to get around. He mostly chose the prewritten endings and enjoyed adding and resizing extra characters.
Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

I would, and I didn't expect to say that. It was simple fun without aggressively marketing to kids and my DS got a lot of fun from it. Heis especislly chuffed that it will become a book.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?
Lovely and bright and colourful. Seems to be easy to use not over complicated.
Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?
DS2 is 6 and wrote two stories the practice one was Doug the dinosaur exploring the jungle, forest, farm and the seaside. His proper story was poppy parrot went under the sea, across the desert, into space and through the jungle.
Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
Ds2 enjoyed the process of choosing the character and the endings but struggled to make his own up. He struggled to get the extra characters into place as they kept getting stuck behing the menu bit but got the hang of it.
Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
I would recommend it for a quick something to keep little ones busy for 10 minutes or so. We enjoyed it and will use it again in the the future.
Christopher would like Poppy the Parrot printed please.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website? It was easy and fun to use.
The characters are very sweet and the story scenes are varied and engaging. We will definitely be using it again. It made my son think about how to create a story, what words he would like to use and how he would like it to end.
Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?

A car called hot wheels who went into space, the desert and under the sea. We enjoyed the little characters he met along the way.
Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
He enjoyed it, he liked the characters and had so much fun making the first that we made another straight after. He got the hang of where to press and search for the characters although not the part where you add in your own extra characters. On the I pad it was hard to see if these had been added and whether you had a colour choice as it didn't alter.

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not? Yes definitely. My son liked the characters, the scenes and adding in his own personal touches. It was good fun, made him think about creating a story and it was something nice (and free) we could do together.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?
Nice bright, colourful and engaging, encourages creativity, easy and quick results , which is useful as three year olds can't concentrate for too long.

Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?
We wrote a story about Swimmy the Dolphin, he went on various adventures sometimes my son chose to go with the text options provided sometimes he made up his own endings.

Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
My son loved it and is very excited at the prospect of something arriving in the post for him. He wanted to do a few stories so we also did one about Jonah the monkey. He was also still talking about it at bedtime and we'd done our story just after breakfast.

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
Yes I would, on a rainy day it's a good activity and more engaging than watching TV, also I found we did drawings of Swimmy later on.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?
Nice, colourful website which appealed to DS (5). He particularly liked the space background.
Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?
We wrote a story about "Cool Car the Car" -very much DS's choice of name . He went to the desert, space, the jungle and under the sea before coming back home.
Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?

DS enjoyed it. He liked adding the extra graphics to the page and changing the colours. He was less keen on coming up with his own wording (not a criticism of the programme in any way - being reluctant to write is a general theme with him) so we just went with the standard wording.
Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
Yes - fun programme that is easy to use.

Thanks again for selecting us

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?
It was good, fun, bright and vibrant but it kept stalling or freezing. I had to reload it and start again. And the kids were mightly peeved that they couldn't write a story together.
Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?
Poppy the whale went to various places and met a number of characters.
Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
I did this primarily with my three year old who got really annoyed that the story wasn't really controlled by her, she chose a whale and initially "under the sea" scene. Once it became apparent that we had to choose another scene next she was outraged, crying and wailing that she wanted it to be under the sea again. She liked decorating the pages with the drag and drop but the scenes/characters were pre determined and she was less than impressed!
Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not? I'd recommend it as an activity to do to promote literacy etc but I wouldn't pay for a book at the end of it. It's a fun thing to do for ten minutes when introducing a child to a computer especially learning mouse skills etc.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?
Quite basic but colourful and easy to navigate , appropriate for younger DC, but perhaps a little too simple for 7 yr olds.

Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?
DD wrote several! Her first one one was Flippy the Dolphin who went to the jungle, the desert and the sea before going home exhausted!

Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
DD loved it and can't wait to get her book. In the space of two days she created about eight stories!

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
Yes I would, if like DD they like storytelling and making their own stories up.

Other comments: I couldn't see a way to edit account details (DD's name) or delete unwanted stories in the library. The stories seem to save automatically but you only find that out on returning. It would be good have a save/discard option.

DD couldn't fault Storymakers in the slightest and absolutely loved the range of characters and the option to name them herself.

I saw some minor typos in the pre-set text that could have been caught earlier. I also would have liked to have had the option for DD to continue an adventure/interaction with a character for a bit longer, rather than just stop and move on to the next location, but only because DD is learning about how to place punctuation in text and it's good practice.

Thanks for the opportunity to review this. It made DD very happy to see her name on the screen and she will be thrilled to have a book of her own!

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?
I thought it was a nicely put together website. Attractive colours, simple, easy to navigate, professional looking.

Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?
My daughter chose a dolphin for her story. She called it Rosie. The dolphin visited the various places available and met various characters.

Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
She really enjoyed it. She is not particularly good at using the mouse, so that was difficult and she got a little frustrated that she couldn't do all the navigation. She enjoyed deciding what was said, and which extra things to add to the page, and she liked controlling colours, light and dark, and exactly where to place things.

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
Yes sure. I think I would recommend it to friends. I think more choices about what happens in the story and more characters would make it even better.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?
I really like the idea of creating a multi ending story, there were loads of toy pictures (story characters) to select from. It's visually appealing and had nice large images. We use the iPad rather than a laptop and the image heavy website did run painfully slow. This was tried on Sunday adternoon, so whether it had a lot of traffic on that day or just runs slow I don't know but we did find it hard to stick with it!

Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?
The first one DS and I created was archiebarchie the whale, selected varies scenes to explore such as under the water and the seaside... We had trouble putting stickers out as it was running so slow DS was clicking too much, all got a bit stuck! So turned it off and restarted, improved slightly but still super slow.
Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
He enjoyed it in the most. Think he would have loved it worked fast.

Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

I def would recommend this site, it's lovely and fun. My DS loves the iPad and watching toy review and playing games this makes a great addition. But, it does need to run faster.

Q1) I really liked the story makers website when I, eventually, was able to access the site (my broadband provider blocked the site which concerned me a little). I found it easy to use with my daughter. There was enough to keep her occupied and it was pitched at a perfect level for her. It was lovely and colourful and did not overtly advertise Kinder products, which was also a concern prior to accessing the site.

2. we wrote a story about Lucy the Lion. She visited animals in various lands and asked them questions.

Q3) my daughter really enjoyed making up her story. The site provided enough 'scaffolding' to ensure that, with minimal input, she got a decent result. She liked changing the little animals in the background too.

Q4) I would definitely recommend the site to others. On a rainy day, it's a perfect way to occupy half an hour or so.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?
Colourful, engaging, easy to navigate.

Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?
Jerry the Whale visited various fun locations and met a new character in each. The story ended with a personalised message.

Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?
My DS is almost five, and absolutely loves books, so he thought it was great. He did stick with the text options rather than coming up with his own, but enjoyed selecting the additional items.

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
Yes, I would. It's an entertaining activity to share with your DC, and the fact that you can make any combination of characters in more stories is great.

Q1. Easy to navigate, not overly branded. It was very slow creating the story on my old ipad (it wrote it up one character every couple of seconds, agonisingly slow), but it worked fine on a newer laptop. I couldn't find any way to save a story part way through, which would be useful.

Q2. My twins wrote 2 stories each, picking different characters and different locations. We had Scarlett the Dragon, Isaac the Motorbike and a couple of others. We stuck with the scripted questions as the DC struggled to think of their own questions (they are only 5).

Q3. They loved creating the stories, and especially putting the stickers onto the scenes.

Q4. Yes I would recommend the site, it's a great way to encourage reading and creativity.

Q1. We liked the website, but it was pretty slow to load on my laptop and we couldn't use it on a tablet. It was very easy to navigate, my 4 your old could manage it pretty easily.

Q2. We wrote several stories, DD's favourite was about Dora the Dog who visited the seaside, met a seagull, wanted to go to france. Went to the jungle, met a monkey asked to go to disneyland. Went under the sea, met a starfish, asked if the starfish knew any princesses (anyone else sensing a theme here?!)

Q3. We enjoyed writing the endings, but found the books a bit repetitive, DD would have like to have been able to choose a theme and do a whole story around it instead of jumping from area to area. We really enjoyed decorating the pages and have printed out each book which DD has enjoyed looking at and is planning to take into school to show her teachers. She doesn't think they are as good as her stories she writes 'by her own' though!

Q4. It was a nice way to kill 10 minutes. Something we could do together so yes, I would recommend the site, though only to friends with quite young children.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website? Very appealing to my six year old, colourful and easy to use.

Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website? Roar the Lion goes off on his adventure meeting various friends along the way.

Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story? He loved it and found it easy to follow.

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not? I think it has an appeal to younger children as the imagery is good and they can instantly see their story, so yes I would recommend it to friends and family.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?

Very colourful, easy to navigate and appealing to children

Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?

Shamu the whale went around the world helping people he met on the way

Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?

He enjoyed the story making process and really liked the fact he could choose his own answers to questions if he wanted, he did get slightly frustrated sometimes as there seemed to be a lag every now and then adding the extra accessories in

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

I definitely would, as he is already asking to create another story about a dog called Harry- he seems to thoroughly enjoy making and then having. The stories read back to him. I think it is a great idea and a good way to spend some time with your child learning about their imagination

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?

Lovely bright website. Easy to navigate and lovely child friendly characters.

Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?

My daughter chose the fox to create her story. She loves kinder egg toys so enjoyed this and enjoyed picking a name for her character. Her fox character went on adventures to different lands and met with different friends along the way.

Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?

My daughter had fun creating the story, although as she is still only 4 I'm not entirely sure she realised she was creating her own story. The website seemed a little unresponsive to her touch (we were using an iPad) which made her a little frustrated at times. The website also wouldn't respond/crashed once or twice which again was frustrating. Saying that, she did enjoy it and went on to create a further 2 stories. Features she did like included the sound effects on each new page and the light switch to switch the page between night and day. It's not something she could do by herself as she is not yet able to read, so needed lots of support with this.

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

Maybe. We had fun with this for half an hour or so but we were not overwhelmed. Maybe better for children who are able to type their own responses into the story.

Q1. What were your overall impressions of the Storymakers website?

I thought it was very good. It was very easy to navigate and create the story. It was bright and engaging for my child and she wanted to use it again and again. I wasn't 100% sure about the story, the plot was a bit all over the place, I thought once we had picked the initial location the story would be based there, e.g the beach, but it does jump from location to location which I wasn't keen on but my daughter was happy enough! There were loads of characters to choose from which was great. My daughter enjoyed choosing from the pre-set responses on each page.

Q2. Can you briefly tell us what the story was about which you wrote with your DC on the Storymakers website?

My daughter created a story about Ella the frog who met various friends at different locations from the seaside to the farm, then returned home after her adventurous day.

Q3. What did your DC think of the Storymakers website and the process of writing their own story?

My daughter liked choosing and naming the character and enjoyed changing the colours of the various items you could add to each page. She also liked choosing whether each scene was day time or night time! She really enjoyed making the story and it was nice to have one to one time with her. She can't wait to receive the printed book. I forsee a frustrating few weeks of asking where it is until it arrives!

Q4. Would you recommend your friends and/or family to visit the Storymakers website with their child(ren), or not? If so, why? If not, why not?

I would recommend the site as it was an enjoyable thing to do together, a useful rainy day activity. My child is almost 4 and I can imagine this would be even more fun for an older child who could write their own responses.
The only thing that wasn't as I expected was that I thought the story would be more personal to the child, such as including details of them within the storyline. We will be using the website again though, it was definitely a hit overall.