Kiley Sobel

Touchscreen prompts for preschoolers: designing developmentally appropriate techniques for teaching young children to perform gestures

Though toddlers and preschoolers are regular touchscreen users, relatively little is known about how they learn to perform unfamiliar gestures. In this paper we assess the responses of 34 children, aged 2 to 5, to the most common in-app prompting techniques for eliciting specific gestures. By reviewing 100 touchscreen apps for preschoolers, we determined the types of prompts that children are likely to encounter. We then evaluated their relative effectiveness in teaching children to perform simple gestures. We found that children under 3 were only able to interpret instructions when they came from an adult model, but that children made rapid gains between age 3 and 3-and-a-half, at which point they were able to follow in-app audio instructions and on-screen demonstrations. The common technique of using visual state changes to prompt gestures was ineffective across this age range. Given that prior work in this space has primarily focused on childrens fine motor control, our findings point to a need for increased attention to the design of prompts that accommodate childrens cognitive development as well.

It wasn't really about the Pokémon: Parents' Perspectives on a Location-Based Mobile Game

Though prior work shows parents worry about screen media experiences displacing physical activity and time outdoors, this research does not account for location-based mobile games like Pokémon GO, which specifically facilitate outdoor activity. To fill this gap in the research, we surveyed and interviewed parents to understand (1) their values and perceptions of this type of gameplay and (2) how they co-play Pokémon GO with their children. Our findings provide empirical evidence that, in addition to appreciating the increased exercise and time outdoors, parents valued how play led to family bonding experiences. Furthermore, some traditional concerns about screen time persisted in this context, and new concerns about safety in real-world environments emerged. Parents mitigated these concerns with rules and gameplay choices, such as maintaining control of the mobile device, to ensure children were safe. This work contributes an empirical understanding of families as co-users of technology and offers a generative lens to study and design for joint media engagement among family members where gameplay differs from normative notions of screen time.

Incloodle: Evaluating an Interactive Application for Young Children with Mixed Abilities

Every child should have an equal opportunity to learn, play, and participate in his or her life. In this work, we investigate how interactive technology design features support children with and without disabilities with inclusion during play. We developed four versions of Incloodle, a two-player picture-taking tablet application, designed to be inclusive of children with different abilities and needs. Each version of the application varied in (1) whether or not it enforced co-operation between children; and in (2) whether it prompted interactions through in-app characters or more basic instructions. A laboratory study revealed technology-enforced cooperation was helpful for child pairs who needed scaffolding, but character-based prompting had little effect on childrens experiences. We provide an empirical evaluation of interactive technology for inclusive play and offer guidance for designing technology that facilitates inclusive play between young neurotypical and neurodiverse children.

Co-Designing with Preschoolers Using Fictional Inquiry and Comicboarding

In this case study, we describe a design workshop with 7 children age 4-6 using existing co-design techniques known to elicit design insights in older individuals. We found that our 5- and 6-year-old participants successfully generated design ideas using these methods, while 4-year-olds were unable to use create solutions in a traditional format. How-ever, these younger children enthusiastically offered opportunities where, with methodological guidance, the research-er could have followed the childs lead and shifted the design question to one that was potentially more meaningful for the participant. We propose a future work to examine the effectiveness of giving these younger participants great-er authority in defining and scoping the problem space.

Maximizing children's opportunities with inclusive play: considerations for interactive technology design

Inclusive play, defined as play among children with and without disabilities, provides learning opportunities that challenge stereotypes, foster strong friendships, and help children develop empathy and other social and emotional skills. Designing technologies to support inclusive play are understudied in Human-Computer Interaction. We synthesized literature, conducted design ethnography in an inclusive classroom, and interviewed and surveyed parents and teachers to explore this problem. Our research contributes an empirical understanding of the current state of inclusive play and a characterization of the design space for interactive technologies that can support children and adults with inclusive play. We identify key facilitators of inclusive play: direct and embedded supports, transparency, adjustability, emphasis on childrens interests and strengths, and current technology use. We also describe significant barriers to inclusive play: effort required to facilitate inclusive play, childrens preferences, parental inexperience, and inappropriate technology. Through our discussion, we conclude that interactive technologies should be designed to harness the facilitators and help overcome the barriers in order to maximize childrens opportunities with inclusive play.

LogiSketch: A Free-Sketch Digital Circuit Design and Simulation SystemLogiSketch

This paper presents LogiSketch, a system that recognizes hand-drawn digital logic diagrams and then allows students to simulate those diagrams. LogiSketch is one of few complete sketch recognition systems (and the first in its domain) that allows the student to draw freely, without drawing style constraints. LogiSketch employs novel recognition feedback and active support for error correction. Additionally, LogiSketch incorporates behind-the-scenes, user-targeted learning that improves recognition that requires no additional effort from the student. A pilot study reveals that LogiSketch succeeds in engaging students, even though it is not yet a suitable replacement for menu-based tools. Study results also reveal what is most important in the interface and functionality of a sketch recognition tool for education.

Hidden symbols

Linking a symbol to the object it represents is a skill that develops gradually over the first few years of life. However, prior work shows that frequent use of this capacity makes it unintuitive for adults to recognize it as a challenge for young children. We hypothesized that this disconnect would manifest in software interfaces designed for young children, such that applications would embed symbols that the target audience would fail to understand. We conducted a randomized controlled trial with 34 preschoolers between the ages of 2 and 5 to assess their ability to work with user interface elements that require symbolic mappings. In particular, we assessed, (1) symbolic progress bars and (2) demonstrations of touch interactions by an on-screen cartoon hand. We found that these techniques are entirely inaccessible for children under 3 and that they require specific design choices to facilitate understanding in children between the ages of 3 and 5. Among a sample of 94 popular apps targeting children in this age range, we found that these symbolic techniques are incorporated into 44% of apps for preschoolers. We further found that embellishing symbolic elements with visual detail, a common practice in apps for preschoolers, increases childrens cognitive burden and is an additional barrier to performing the symbolic mappings necessary to use these interfaces. We present design alternatives that make these prevalent user interface elements accessible to this user group. Display Omitted

Equity & Inclusivity at IDC

In this one-day workshop, we aim to bring together a community of researchers at the Interaction Design and Children (IDC) conference who will share how they already make or plan to make equity-promoting fairness by allocating more resources and opportunities to those who need it? and inclusivity? the inclusion and meaningful participation of people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized? foundational to their research with children and families. By discussing theoretical and practice-based approaches, providing feedback on each others research, and collectively identifying concerns and challenges in addressing equity and inclusivity when doing and assessing research in IDC, we intend to do twofold. First, we will build our understanding of how our approaches, designs, and/or methods may either be restricting or facilitating equitable access and participation of diverse children and their families. Second, we will work to establish and articulate approaches to our research that forefront equity and inclusivity, taking into account how intersecting identities affect how the children and families with whom we work have or do not have access to various sources of power.

Designing our future students: Introducing User Experience to teens through a UCD charette

In order to introduce high school students to the user-centered design process, our team created an outreach activity called the UCD charette. In this experience report, we share how we developed and implemented the charette. We provide background on the rationale and original goals of the charette. Next, we detail how we iteratively developed the workshop and piloted it with over 160 students, in 14 settings. To evaluate the effort, we collected and analyzed quantitative and qualitative assessment data from students, feedback from teachers, and our teams considerations of what worked well and what needed improvement. We conclude this report with reflections on the effort, limitations and our next steps for the project.

How to survive creating an intergenerational co-design group

In this forum we celebrate research that helps to successfully bring the benefits of computing technologies to children, older adults, people with disabilities, and other populations that are often ignored in the design of mass-marketed products. --- Juan Pablo Hourcade, Editor