Stuart MacFarlane

Using the fun toolkit and other survey methods to gather opinions in child computer interaction

The paper begins with a review of some of the current literature on the use of survey methods with children. It then presents four known concerns with using survey methods for opinion gathering and reflects on how these concerns may impact on studies in Child Computer Interaction. The paper then investigates the use of survey methods in Child Computer Interaction and investigates the Fun Toolkit. Three new research studies into the efficacy and usefulness of the tools are presented and these culminate in some guidelines for the future use of the Fun Toolkit. The authors then offer some more general guidelines for HCI researchers and developers intending to use survey methods in their studies with children. The paper closes with some thoughts about the use of survey methods in this interesting but complex area.

All work and no play: measuring fun, usability, and learning in software for children

This paper describes an empirical study of fun, usability, and learning in educational software. Twenty five children aged 7 and 8 from an English primary school participated. The study involved three software products that were designed to prepare children for government initiated science tests. Pre and post tests were used to measure the learning effect, and observations and survey methods were used to assess usability and fun. The findings from the study demonstrate that in this instance learning was not correlated with fun or usability, that observed fun and observed usability were correlated, and that children of this age appeared to be able to differentiate between the constructs used to describe software quality. The Fun Sorter appears to be an effective tool for evaluating products with children. The authors discuss the implications of the results, offer some thoughts on designing experiments with children, and propose some ideas for future work.

Assessing usability and fun in educational software

We describe an investigation into the relationship between usability and fun in educational software designed for children. Twenty-five children aged between 7 and 8 participated in the study. Several evaluation methods were used; some collected data from observers, and others collected reports from the users. Analysis showed that in both observational data, and user reports, ratings for fun and usability were correlated, but that there was no significant correlation between the observed data and the reported data. We discuss the possible reasons for these findings, and describe a method that was successful in eliciting opinions from young children about fun and usability.

Measuring the Usability of Text Input Methods for Children

This paper describes an experiment in which children aged between 6 and 10 entered text into a word processor using four different input methods, mouse, keyboard, speech recognition, and handwriting recognition. Several different measures of usability were made in an attempt to assess the suitability of the input methods in this situation. The paper describes and discusses the measures and their use with very young children.

Requirements for the design of a handwriting recognition based writing interface for children

This paper describes how the design of a novel writing interface for children was informed by requirements gathering. The derivation of a set of system requirements from observations of children using early prototypes of the interface and from modelling the system is described, and then two methods of gathering further requirements by surveying children are outlined. The relative advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed. The children were not able to contribute to the full range of requirements necessary for a complete system, but they contributed fun requirements that the observational work failed to identify. A model of the childs relationship to interactive systems is used to discuss why this is the case.

Child computer interaction: advances in methodological research: Introduction to the special issue of cognition technology and work

In recent years, there has been an increasing trend for children to use information and communication technology in its various forms. Children now grow up immersed in technology to a level that keeps surprising earlier generations, but which, to them, is simply an inherent element of their habitat. Although this immersion is partly dependent on wealth and circumstance, it is certainly the case that in most developed countries children are frequently users and owners of Personal Computers, video game consoles, personal music technologies and mobile phones. This increase in usage of interactive technology by children has not gone unnoticed. More than ever before, technology manufacturers and service providers are turning their attention to children as a growing market segment. Even more important, societies are becoming concerned to ensure that appropriate products and services, namely those that can support development and enhance well-being, are being made available for children. Whatever motivates the design of interactive technology for children, it is clear that there is an urgent and present need for methodological knowledge about the design of these products and an understanding of the ways in which interaction takes place between the child and the technology. Designing technology for humans has been studied for many years. Initially concentrating on ergonomics of use, before becoming more concerned with general human factors, this field has now matured to the point where there are defined research areas that have clear identities. Human computer interaction (HCI) is that area that focuses on the interaction between man and machine. HCI has been growing in importance over the last 25 or more years, and, as a discipline, has matured and settled. For HCI practitioners and academics there are published curricula, dedicated high-impact journals, specialised undergraduate and postgraduate University courses, and vibrant associations of professionals in the field (e.g., Usability Professionals Association, British HCI group, ACM SIGCHI). Child computer interaction (CCI) is the sub-field of HCI that studies how children use interactive products. In contrast with HCI, CCI is still finding its way. Relating to sociology, education and educational technology, connected to art and design, and with links to storytelling and literature, as well as psychology and computing this new field borrows methods of inquiry from many different disciplines. This disparity in methods of enquiry makes it difficult for researchers to gain an overview of research, to compare across studies and to gain a clear view of cumulative progress in the field. It is difficult to identify an exact moment when CCI became a specialised field as it was a gradual maturity of the area that spawned its creation. In the early days, pioneering work by Papert and Resnick at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) laid the foundations for work that was carried forward by a few interested individuals around the globe. Several key individuals including P. Markopoulos (&) Department of Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands e-mail: p.markopoulos@tue.nl

The Usability of Handwriting Recognition for Writing in the Primary Classroom

This paper describes an empirical study with children that compared the three methods of writing — using pencil and paper, using the QWERTY keyboard at a computer, and using a pen and graphics tablet. The children wrote short stories. Where the graphics tablet was used, the text was recognized and presented to the children as ASCII text. Measures of user satisfaction, quantity of writing produced, and quality of writing produced were taken. In addition, the recognition process was evaluated by comparing what the child wrote with the resulting ASCII text. The results show that for the age group considered, writing at the tablet was as efficient as, and produced comparable writing to, the pencil and paper. The keyboard was less efficient. Key usability problems with the handwriting recognition interface are identified and classified, and we propose some solutions in the form of design guidelines for both recognition-based and pen-based computer writing interfaces.

'Good enough for what?': acceptance of handwriting recognition errors by child users

This paper describes an experiment to establish whether or not children would accept a lower rate of accuracy for handwriting recognition than the 97% reported in a study with adult users. It outlines the experimental procedure that involved the use of an automated Wizard of Oz method. Problems with the experiment are described and the results are presented.

In search for evaluation methods for children's tangible technology

We selected some user-based evaluation methods for use with school children to evaluate our Tangible User Interface (TUI) prototype. We aimed to evaluate mainly the usability of the prototype, and also fun and educational design. The evaluations were carried out in different environments. We found location of the study and disposition of the space play important roles; selection of the participants is also important

The ChiCI group

This paper describes the work, the vision, and the approach of the Child Computer Interaction (ChiCI) group at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. This group, formed four years ago, has grown to become one of the leaders in its field whilst maintaining a democratic structure, an open mind, and an invigorating message. The paper describes the groups creation, outlines its current activities, and contemplates its future.