Usability for Kids: As easy as pie
Every second child between the ages of five and six has a very special playmate: a computer. Computer software manufacturers and providers for kids' websites make sure that their products are educational. At the same time, optimal usability should not be neglected, as kids do not only have a mind of their own, but also specific needs and requirements of an interactive system. In a study, User Interface Design GmbH (UID) now defines rules for usability engineering for and with kids.
Five-year-old Thomas is glued to the computer steering Lillebi over the deep gorge. She almost fell. But by clicking here and pressing a button there, Thomas safely steered the heroine of his computer game to the other side of the screen. This is not unusual in the age of bits and bytes, as every second child in Germany between five and six years interacts with a computer (according to a survey conducted by the Pedagogical University of Ludwigsburg, 2006). Numerous multimedia learning and gaming software is nowadays available for kids – for them, computer and internet belong to their lives like Plasticine and craft works scissors. But is the use of interactive media just as easy and intuitive for them?
Kids' needs are neglected
In spite of the growing number of very young users, their handling with interactive products is hardly taken into consideration. When designing websites and computer programs, manufacturers rely on the general ideas about the behavior of kids or take their own kids as a benchmark. Important factors, such as motor skills, are not taken into account. What is also often neglected is the call for already integrating children in the design of the product.
Usability testing with kids has its own rules
Actually, it is quite unfair, as even the youngest consumers have a right to usability. Therefore, User Interface Design GmbH (UID) devotes a great amount of sensitivity and know-how to children in the pre-school age. "While a usability test with adults can take one to two hours, children in the pre-school age already lose their attention after 15 minutes", says Julia Maly, Usability Engineer at UID. Based on her experience, she knows the most important rules for successful usability tests with children. It for example helps a lot to conduct the test in the environment of a kindergarten and to let the children decide the time of the test themselves.
Expanding buttons accommodate the kids
Julia Maly examined the design of interactive systems for pre-school children in a study. She answered the question to what extent the design of buttons can help the children to use the mouse. Compared to adults, four to five-year-old children have difficulties in moving the mouse towards a button or menu item and clicking on it because their cognitive and motor development strongly differs from older and thus more experienced users. The fine motor skills of the hands are still developing, the coordination of eyes and hands is slow and insecure and the response time is three times longer than that of an adult. The empirical test of six differently designed interactive elements showed that big buttons or buttons that expand when approaching them with the mouse work best. "A result that manufacturers of computer games and providers of kids' websites should keep in mind", says Dr. Claus Görner, managing director of UID.
User Interface Design GmbH will present the results of the study at the German HCI conference Human & Computer 2007 from 2 to 5 September in Weimar. Together with Prof. Dr. Michael Burmester, consultant for Research & Innovation at UID, Julia Maly will lecture about usability testing with kids and the design of user interfaces for kids.
Further information
Research & Innovation
Website of the Stuttgart Media University
