Interaction Design Heuristics
for Children
By Jim Lord and Laura Schraven
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
Introduction
The 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’.
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
Characterizing children
At 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)
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
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.
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
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
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
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.
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
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.
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
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.
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
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.
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
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.
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
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.
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
Designing for children
Children, 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.
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
Interaction and usability differences between children and adults:
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
Figure 1: Roles children can play during design process
The inner circle represents the traditional role of children as endusers 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.
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
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
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
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.
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
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
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
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.
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
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.
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
Best Practices in website design for children
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
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
Conclusion
The 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.
By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven
Interaction Design Heuristics for Children
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By Jim Lord & Laura Schraven