Interaction Design Heuristics for Children By Jim Lord and Laura Schraven

Interaction Design Heuristics for Children

By Jim Lord and Laura Schraven


By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven

IntroductionThe growing interest in universal usability has brought to the forefront considerations of different target user groups, disabilities, and different cultures. Since they are growing in numbers and in financial terms, children are getting more and more attention as a special user group.

That said, children are not a homogeneous group for which a single theory and practice may be recommended. They have their own likes, dislikes, and needs that are not the same as adults’.



Characterizing childrenAt different ages, children’s relation to interactive technologies varies, reflecting their interests, humor, characters, contexts and settings.

The four stages of development:1. The dependency/exploratory stage (ages birth to 2 years)2. The emerging-autonomy stage (ages 3 to 7)3. The rule/role stage (ages 8 to 12)4. Early and late adolescence (ages 13 and up)



Stage 1: Dependency/exploratory (ages birth to 2 years)• Stage of learning, exploration and discovery• Enjoy repetitive sensorimotor actions• Parallel play• Have mostly physiological, love and safety needs• Products should be

- based on simple concepts- give a feeling of safety- stimulate learning

• Form should be round and support active exploration.

Product example: Electronic activity center. Takes the form of a tablet, with pictures, buttons and sliders. The activities of pressing, sliding and spinning allow the child to practice fine motor skills.

Sample sites: ages birth to 2 years

Starfall: a website design as a collection of flash cards to help with letter recognition and phonetics.

Sesame Street: a website with games and videos to engage children in educational activities



Stage 2: Emerging-autonomy stage (ages 3 to 7 years)• Stage of fantasy and magic• Children are fairly self-centered and demonstrate continued

parallel play• Need stimulation, love and safety• Starting to develop their knowledge of

- Books- Words- Letters- Conversational strategies- Initial writing skills

Product example: Educational game set in fantasy world. Where riddles are presented and they can practice basic language, musical and math skills.

Sample sites: ages 3 to 7 years

Disney: children can connect with Mickey and friends through games, videos and interactive stories

PBS: educational games, videos, music and interactive activities.



Stage 3: Rule/role stage (ages 8 to 12 years)• Shift gradually from fantasy to reality• Play in pairs and group• Growing interest in competition• Develop

- Sense of logic- Reasoning- Simple abstractions

• Need acceptance and success• Influences shift from their parents to their friends

Product example: laptops or handheld computer devices.

Sample sites: ages 8 to 12 years

Disney: a companion site to television shows and movies created by Disney. Video games, videos and creation center are targeted to preteens.

Neopets: a virtual pet community. Blends the fantasy and reality.



Stage 4: Early and late adolescence (ages 13 and up)• Develop their abstract thinking and logical skills• Increasingly independent• Needs focus on identity and sexuality• Can handle abstract problems and complexity• Goal oriented and relate more to realistic• Vocabulary increases to over 40,000 words• Increased understanding of irony and sarcasm

Product example: mobile phones and mp3 players.

Sample sites: ages 13 and up

Everloop and Facebook are both social networking sites that allow for sharing of videos, interactive game playing, photo/video sharing and one-to-one or group interaction.



Designing for childrenChildren, like adults, often use technology to perform certain tasks. In such cases, usability and fitness for purpose are crucial. While the actual design challenges differ it is clear that HCI methodologies can be extended and specialized to address the needs of children. Two major topics in the context of designing for children are:

• Age-specific interaction styles, e.g. how to structure menus, the size of the on screen objects, fonts, the suitability of input devices, etc. • The involvement of children in the design process.

Interaction and usability differences between children and adults:




Figure 1: Roles children can play during design processThe inner circle represents the traditional role of children as end-users of technology, with no involvement in its design. As you move outward, the role of children changes in two ways: First it becomes more active and responsible and, second, children get involved in more stages of the design activity. The outer ring represents the radical view that children should act as designers.



Child as User• In this role the child is the user of technology and an adult is an

observer or tester of the child’s experience. • Oldest and widely used research method• Researchers are able to recognize and identify the impact of

technologies on children• Identifies

- General concepts for future development- Process of learning through the tested technologies



Child as Tester• Test prototypes and emerging technologies• The objective is to determine specifics and immediate issues

- “What did you like?”- “What part did you find difficult?”- “What part was boring?”

• Feedback gathered can be implemented immediately• This immediacy provides empowerment for children and future

projects.



Child as Informant• Children can be used at various times during the design process

- The beginning during project development- Have impact on the direction of the project- Shape of the technologies used and how they are evaluated

The methods and the tools need to be age appropriate or the outcome may produce minimal results.

Example: Children programming and designing



Child as Designer• Active participate• Research• Design• Assessment of the experience• Introduced to the notion of invention

Example: “Intergenerational Design Team” a team comprised of faculty and staff from the University of Maryland and a group of 7-11 year olds. This team has produced storytelling robots, zooming software for storytelling as well as kid centric web design for the United States Census Bureau.



Design Methodologies (refined for use with children)• Contextual Inquiry: calls for researchers to collect data in the users’ own environment. Generally, users are observed performing typical activities and researchers ask questions of users when clarification is needed.

• Technology Immersion: children were provided with technology-rich environment where they are decision-makers. The children were asked to make their own choices concerning what they did with technology.

• Participatory Design: Children are directly asked to work with researchers and create low-tech prototypes. Allows new technology possibilities that might not have been considered otherwise. At the same time, children are inspired and empowered by the collaboration with adults to generate new ideas.



Conventional Best Practices- Create elements that are large and visually memorable- Use bright, vivid colors that stimulate the senses- Incorporate elements from nature- Create depth in the design- Add navigational elements that are large and easy to find- Use video- Include printable elements- Break the grid- Make modifications based on usability testing

Unconventional Best Practices

- Create a happy, playful mood- Use animated characters- Use graphic-heavy navigation bars- Use Flash animation abundantly- Embed motions and sounds that trigger on page load- Include a “games” section- Change the cursor to contribute to the theme- Add voices to navigation rollovers- Be accountable to both children and parents

Best Practices in website design for children



ConclusionThe Human-Computer-Interaction community continues to explore and refine the way it comes to understand the user. When the user is a child it is important to understand their unique needs and strengths. Depending on the goal of the interaction, this presentation defines many stages, roles, and methodologies that are helpful in collecting data from children and should lead to improved designs for children.



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Interaction Design Heuristics for Children By Jim Lord and Laura Schraven