Usability Assessment with Children

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Usability Assessment with Children

• Justin Gilkey

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Outline

• Why should children be involved
• Brief historical facts regarding HCI research and
  children
• Methods for conducting results
• Examples both throughout and at the end
• Conclusions

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Why do we need child testers?
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Internet usability and children.

• Usability issues hurt children more than they do
  adults
• Often use dated hardware
• Children are proficient with some adult sites
• Children are inept with some sites designed for
  children

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Children like adds?

• Children use the internet for entertainment
• Enjoy convoluted flash
• Often cannot distinguish between advertisements
  and page content
• Will intentionally attend to fun advertisements

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Computers are now ubiquitous among children.
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User Centered Design

• The goal of Software Development is to meet
  users needs.
• Teams require constant interaction, especially
  feedback, from users.

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Developing for Children

• Children cannot develop software for themselves
  yet.
• Instead software is developed by adults.
• Sometimes in conjunction with parents, teachers,
  and other child experts.

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Children are NOT little Adults

• Instead Children are almost a separate species
• Children have their own likes, dislikes,
  curiosities, and needs that are not the same as
  their parents or teachers. (Berman, 1977)
• homo sapiens junioris ?
• Children are also incapable of effectively
  communicating their needs the way adults can.
• Thus we have an unusually large chasm between the
  developer and the user.

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Adult Users Vision
Developers interpretation
Separation
Child Users Vision
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SolutionUser (children) centered development
Drunin (1999)
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ExampleScaife, Rogers, Aldrich, and Davis (1997)

• Child centered design is unique
• Can children tell us the best way to teach them
  something they know nothing about?
• Use the approach to develop software for
  educating children about ecology.
• Found that child informants were helpful.
• Children are capable of providing information
  useful in guiding development of educational
  products for children.

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Brief Historical tidbits of HCI and Children
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Children in HCI literature

• The first published HCI paper was in 1982
• 1 of 75 original papers at the finding of SIGCHI
• 5 years later CHI received its second and third
  article.

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25 years later

• From the mid 1990s on articles investigating
  children and technology have exploded.
• Two important areas are hand-held devices and web
  technologies.
• Programming languages for children have been a
  hotbed of research since the beginning
• Ex. LOGO.
• Modern attempts are lexical programs.

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Common products tested by children for children

• Pedaogological games
• Typical video games
• Consumer electronics

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Conducting usability studies with children.
We are here
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Issues relevant to conducting usability studies
with children

• Recruiting participants
• Special considerations
• Lab equipment
• Facilitating studies with children

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Recruiting children is more time consuming than
recruiting adults

• All investigations often require approval.
• The best places to recruit children often require
  special approval.
• Children cannot legally consent to participating
  in research.

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Where do children come from?

• Sources
• Schools
• Daycare
• Baby Sitters
• Community Centers
• Churches
• Friends
• Family

• Tools
• Fliers
• Radio Advertisements
• Word of mouth
• Subject pools
• Experimetrix.com/bgsu

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Why not my Kid, or my friends/family members?

• Children often want to please adults
• Children of HCI researchers are likely to be over
  exposed to technology
• Ease of use brings over use and risk of biasing
  products towards these children

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Special characteristicsHanna, Risde, Alexander

• Age considerations typical target age groups
• Preschool, Elementary School, and Middle school
• Special equipment
• Require more attention and guidance
• More stressful on researchers

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Preschool children

• Ages 2 5 years
• Very short attention spans
• Enjoy demonstrating mastery and pleasing adults.
• Difficult to verbalize their thoughts and
  feelings.
• Underdeveloped motor skills

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Elementary School

• Ages 6 to 10 years
• Often have exposure to computers and technology
  through school
• Greater attention span
• Can be highly expressive in their critiques of
  testers product.
• Others might be a bit more self-conscious with
  talking about computers.

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Middle School

• Ages 11 14 years
• Extensive experience with computers and
  technology
• Easiest to work
• Usually capable of expressing themselves
• Some can perform think aloud

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Typical lab equipment

• Quiet space
• Observation room, tables, computer
• Cameras and Microphones
• Intercom or other communication devices.
• Eye tracking Expensive but useful

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Additional considerations for children

• Non threatening environment
• reasonable amount of pillows, toys and pictures
• Equipment to accommodate smaller hands
• Smaller tables and chairs
• Video cameras are a must
• Equipment that is not scary
• Parents corner or location

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Gender differences

• Gender differences are exacerbated in children
• Boys dont like instructions while girls enjoy
  them
• Boys work solo, girls do not
• Need to strive for equal representation of males
  and females in children usability studies

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Facilitating usability studiesBefore gathering
data

• Allow children to acclimate to the testing
  environment
• Try to develop a rapport with the participant, as
  well as the parent
• Avoid offering children choices
• Plan several breaks

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Facilitating usability studiesGeneral
considerations

• Not surprisingly, working with children is
  difficult
• Always provide positive and encouraging feedback
• Children get bored.

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Gathering Datathink aloud

• Ask participants to verbalize their thoughts
  while performing tasks.
• Allows researchers to collect a wealth of
  qualitative data.
• Children often verbalize instruction and thoughts
  naturally.

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Problems

• Participants are often shy about speaking out
  loud
• It can be a skill that takes time to develop
• Not compatible with other forms of measurement.
• Often requires tester encouragement, which can
  lead to biases.

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Constructive InteractionAn alternative think
aloud

• Work in pairs instead of alone
• Leverages natural communication behavior between
  people
• Ideal for younger children
• Works best where large amounts of cheap
  participants can be found

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Final Examples

• Als, Jensen, and Skov(2005)
• Compared constructive and think aloud with
  children in cell phones
• Used both pre-acquainted pairs, and novel pairs.
• Measured number of problems discovered in the
  phone.
• Pre-acquainted pairs discovered more errors than
  individual testers.
• Pre-acquainted pairs discovered more errors that
  non acquainted pairs

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Final Examples

• Afke Donker Pieter Reitsma (2004)
• Usability assessment of education application
  (K-1st grade).
• novice VS expert users
• Experience is important for children as well as
  adults.
• Lack of participation when asked to think aloud
• Novices slightly more talkative than experts when
  asked to talk aloud.
• Highlights importance of body language when
  testing children.

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Conclusions

• The growing number of products and technologies
  targeted for children demands usability testing.
• The usability of the internet for child is far
  behind its usefulness.

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Conclusions

• Children can be easily integrated into the
  development process and can provide useful
  guidance.
• Many of the skills required to test Usability
  with children can be used to integrate children
  into the development process.
• Usability testing provides key information
  developers need to make products and information
  as useful and engaging as possible.

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References

• http//www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve
  /553469/2/istockphoto_553469_angry_boy_hitting_a_n
  otebook_1.jpg
• http//www.grins4kids.com/images/child_computer.jp
  g
• http//csweb.cs.bgsu.edu/maner/464/syllabus.shtml
• http//www.useit.com/alertbox/children.html
• http//www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resourc
  es/web-usability/testing-children.shtml

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References

• The Role of Children in the Design of New
  Technology.
• Strategies for Recruiting Children for Usability
  Tests.
• Guidelines for Usability testing with children
• Usability Engineering. Jakob Nielson 1999.
• Usability Testing with Children Comparing
  Think-Aloud and Constructive Interaction (Als,
  Jensen, and Skov).
• Usability Testing With Young Cilldren (Donker and
  Resisma 2004)