Skip to main content

Participating Elementary School Children in UI Design Process of Learning Environment: Case KidNet

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Good Practices and New Perspectives in Information Systems and Technologies (WorldCIST 2024)

Abstract

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 children have usually been excluded from the design process, even when they are an important user group. The main goal of this study was to find a way to include 6th graders in the design process so that they could express what kind of UI elements they like. This study was conducted by organizing short design sessions where children got to choose their favorite UI elements from different design alternatives and use them to build a low-tech prototype of a UI. We found that the results produced with this method were sensible and revealed valuable information about children’s UI preferences.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 249.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Hourcade, J.P.: Child-Computer Interaction, 2nd edition. http://homepage.cs.uiowa.edu/~hourcade/book/hourcade_cci_2nd_edition.pdf. Accessed 21 Apr 2023

  2. Jacko, J.A.: Human Computer Interaction Handbook: Fundamentals, Evolving Technologies, and Emerging Applications, Third Edition. Taylor & Francis Group, Baton Rouge, UNITED STATES (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Chiasson, S., Gutwin, C.: Design Principles for Children’s Technology. 9

    Google Scholar 

  4. Liu, F., Sherwin, K., Budiu, R.: UX Design for Children (Ages 3–12). Fremont, CA : Nielsen Norman Group (2022)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Crain, W.C.: Theories of Development: Concepts and Applications. Prentice Hall, Boston (1992)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Nielsen, J.: 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/. Accessed 20 Nov 2023

  7. Tidwell, J., Brewer, C., Valencia, A.: Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design. O’Reilly Media, Incorporated, Sebastopol, United States (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Johnson, J.: Designing With the Mind in Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Guidelines. Morgan Kaufmann (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Hourcade, J.P.: Learning from preschool children’s pointing sub-movements. In: Proceedings of the 2006 Conference on Interaction Design and Children, pp. 65–72. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA (2006). https://doi.org/10.1145/1139073.1139093

  10. Druin, A.: The role of children in the design of new technology. Behav. Inf. Technol. 21, 1–25 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1080/01449290110108659

  11. Iversen, O.S., Smith, R.C., Dindler, C.: Child as protagonist: expanding the role of children in participatory design. In: Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children, pp. 27–37. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA (2017). https://doi.org/10.1145/3078072.3079725

  12. Kraleva, R.S.: Designing an interface for a mobile application based on children’s opinion. Int. J. Interact. Mob. Technol. (iJIM). 11, 53–70 (2017). https://doi.org/10.3991/ijim.v11i1.6099

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Dempsey, J., Sim, G., Cassidy, B., Ta, V.-T.: Children designing privacy warnings: Informing a set of design guidelines. Int. J. Child-Comput. Interact. 31, 100446 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2021.100446

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Yip, J.C., Ello, F.M.T., Tsukiyama, F., Wairagade, A., Ahn, J.: Money shouldn’t be money!: An examination of financial literacy and technology for children through co-design. In: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, pp. 82–93. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA (2023). https://doi.org/10.1145/3585088.3589355

  15. Kitson, A., Antle, A.N., Slovak, P.: Co-designing a virtual reality intervention for supporting cognitive reappraisal skills development with youth. In: Proceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, pp. 14–26. ACM, Chicago IL USA (2023). https://doi.org/10.1145/3585088.3589381

  16. Hämäläinen, E.K., Kiili, C., Marttunen, M., Räikkönen, E., González-Ibáñez, R., Leppänen, P.H.T.: Promoting sixth graders’ credibility evaluation of Web pages: an intervention study. Comput. Hum. Behav. 110, 106372 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Bauer, A.T., Mohseni Ahooei, E.: Rearticulating internet literacy. J. Cyberspace Stud. 2, 29–53 (2018). https://doi.org/10.22059/jcss.2018.245833.1012

  18. Livingstone, S.: Internet literacy: Young people’s negotiation of new online opportunities. In: Matrizes, p. 11 (2011). https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1982-8160.v4i2p11-42

  19. Kiili, C., et al.: Reading to Learn from online information: modeling the factor structure. J. Lit. Res. 50, 304–334 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X18784640

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Hautala, J., Kiili, C., Kammerer, Y., Loberg, O., Hokkanen, S., Leppanen, P.: Sixth graders’ evaluation strategies when reading Internet search results: an eye-tracking study. Behav. Inf. Technol. 37(8), 761–773 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2018.1477992

  21. Sormunen, E., et al.: A Performance-based Test for Assessing Students’ Online Inquiry Competences in Schools. Presented at the September 18 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Sundin, O.: Invisible search: information literacy in the swedish curriculum for compulsory schools. Nord. J. Dig. Literacy 10, 193–209 (2015). https://doi.org/10.18261/ISSN1891-943X-2015-04-01

  23. González-Ibáñez, R., Gacitúa, D., Sormunen, E., Kiili, C.: NEURONE: oNlinE inqUiRy experimentatiON systEm. Proc. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 54, 687–689 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.2017.14505401117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Figma: The Collaborative Interface Design Tool. https://www.figma.com/. Accessed 05 Jul 2023

  25. Chaparro, B., Bernard, M., Mills, M., Frank, T., McKown, J.: Which Fonts Do Children Prefer to Read Online? 1 (2023)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Woods, R.J., Davis, K., Scharff, L.F.V.: Effects of Typeface and Font Size on Legibility for Children

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mirva Tapola .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Tapola, M., Mäkilä, T., Erdmann, N., Mikkilä-Erdmann, M. (2024). Participating Elementary School Children in UI Design Process of Learning Environment: Case KidNet. In: Rocha, Á., Adeli, H., Dzemyda, G., Moreira, F., Poniszewska-Marańda, A. (eds) Good Practices and New Perspectives in Information Systems and Technologies. WorldCIST 2024. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 988. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60224-5_17

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics