Using Low-Tech Prototype to Study Children’s Preferences for UI Components : Case KidNet
Tapola, Mirva (2023-07-06)
Using Low-Tech Prototype to Study Children’s Preferences for UI Components : Case KidNet
(06.07.2023)
Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty.
avoin
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on:
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2023073192393
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2023073192393
Tiivistelmä
Children are spending more and more time on the internet. Although children grow up surrounded by technology, they still lack the skills to distinguish advertisements from the real content and have issues evaluating the reliability of websites. KidNet is a closed online learning environment developed for teaching children these important skills needed online.
User interfaces are a significant part of websites, but even when websites are targeted at children, the UIs are designed by adults. Adults do not remember what it is like to be a child, yet the children have usually been excluded from the design process, even when they are the main user group.
The main goal for this thesis was to find a way to include 6th graders in the design process, find out what kind of UI elements they like, how their likes differ from adults’ likes and is there a need for two different UIs if KidNet was used by adults as well.
The goal was accomplished by organizing short design sessions where children and adults got to choose their favorite elements from different design alternatives and use them to build a low-tech prototype of a UI.
The results showed that the biggest differences were in the layout, children and adults made similar choices concerning chosen elements and colors and that there is no need for separate UIs in the case of KidNet.
User interfaces are a significant part of websites, but even when websites are targeted at children, the UIs are designed by adults. Adults do not remember what it is like to be a child, yet the children have usually been excluded from the design process, even when they are the main user group.
The main goal for this thesis was to find a way to include 6th graders in the design process, find out what kind of UI elements they like, how their likes differ from adults’ likes and is there a need for two different UIs if KidNet was used by adults as well.
The goal was accomplished by organizing short design sessions where children and adults got to choose their favorite elements from different design alternatives and use them to build a low-tech prototype of a UI.
The results showed that the biggest differences were in the layout, children and adults made similar choices concerning chosen elements and colors and that there is no need for separate UIs in the case of KidNet.