* Presents an essential background in child development and child psychology, particularly as they relate to technology.
* Captures best practices for observing and surveying children, training evaluators, and capturing the child user experience using audio and visual technology.
* Examines ethical and legal issues involved in working with children and offers guidelines for effective risk management.
Interactive products designed for children-whether toys, games, educational products, or websites-are increasingly embedded in children’s lives and school experiences. Making these products safe, effective, and entertaining requires new methodologies for carrying out sound and unbiased evaluations for these users with unique requirements, environments, and ethical considerations.
This book directly addresses this need by thoroughly covering the evaluation of all types of interactive technology for children. Based on the authors' workshops, conference courses, and own design experience and research, this highly practical book reads like a handbook, while being thoroughly grounded in the latest research. Throughout, the authors illustrate techniques and principles with numerous mini case studies and highlight practical information in tips and exercises and conclude with three in-depth case studies. Essential reading for usability experts, product developers, and researchers in the field.
Professionals and students who are working on the design of a product whose intended audience is children. This market includes usability experts, product developers of web sites, software--whether games or educational or both--and researchers who are building or evaluating products in the lab for R&D or prototype/projects.
Three of the four authors are academics and teach courses on this, and one school, the University of Central Lancashire has a degree program in this area. So there are some limited opportunities for adoptions but there are some.
Evaluating Children's Interactive Products, 1st Edition
PART 1 CHILDREN AND TECHNOLOGY
1 WHAT IS A CHILD
Age and Children
Learning about Children
Theories of Child Development
Perspectives on Child Development
Typical Stages of Development
Child Development and the Evaluation of Interactive Products
The Temperament of Children
Reducing the Effects of Temperament
2 CHILDREN AND INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY
Interactive Products for Children
How Children Use Interactive Products
How Good Is Interactive Technology for Children?
Gender and Technology
3 THE INTERACTIVE PRODUCT LIFECYCLE
Interaction Design and Evaluation
The Product Lifecycle
Using Prototypes in Evaluation
Involving Children in Design and Evaluation
Further Reading PART 2 EVALUATING WITH AND FOR CHILDREN
4 ETHICAL PRACTICE IN EVALUATIONS
Ethical Principles, Approaches, and Codes
Safety and Risk Assessment
Inducements for Taking Part
Ethical Selection of Participants
Getting Advice and Permission
5 PLANNING THE EVALUATION STUDY
Defining the Purpose of the Evaluation
Choosing Evaluation Methods
Reliability of Evaluation Results
Field versus Lab: More than Just a Location!
The Evaluation Plan-Why Make One?
6 BEFORE THE EVALUATION
Deciding on People and Places
Preparing Technology and Evaluation Instruments
Planning the Day
Training Evaluators and Pilot-Testing
Communicating the Detail
7 DURING THE EVALUATION
Arrival and Setup
Introductions and Instructions
Managing Time and Space
Dealing with Problems on the Day
Closing the Evaluation
8 AFTER THE EVALUATION
Getting the Data into Shape
Coding and Analyzing the Data
Care of Data
Reflecting on the Process PART 3 METHODS OF EVALUATION
9 RECORDING AND LOGGING
Video and Audio
10 OBSERVATION METHODS
Types of Observations
Using Standard Coding Schemes
11 VERBALIZATION METHODS
Types of Verbalization Methods
Dialogue between the Administrator and the Testers
Interaction between Testers
Methodological Issues and Verbalization Methods
Performance of Verbalization Methods
12 THE WIZARD OF OZ METHOD
Wizard of Oz Studies
A Walkthrough of a Wizard of Oz Evaluation
Stages in Planning a Wizard of Oz Study
13 SURVEY METHODS
What Is a Survey?
Designing a Survey
Designing the Questions
Carrying Out the Survey
The Fun Toolkit
Using Diaries to Evaluate Interactive Products with Children
The Parent Evaluator Method
15 INSPECTION METHODS
The SEEM Method
How Good Are Inspection Methods?
Further Reading PART 4 CASE STUDIES
16 CASE STUDY 1: GAME-CONTROLLING GESTURES IN
Finding a Suitable Evaluation Method
Children’s Movement Analysis
Results from the Study
Commentary on the Case Study
17 CASE STUDY 2: EMBEDDING EVALUATION IN THE
DESIGN OF A PERVASIVE GAME CONCEPT
The Design Project Context
Children and the Design of Camelot
The Mission from Mars Method
Paper Prototypes with Observations and Picture Cards Interviews
Evaluating Interaction Styles with Peer Tutoring
Play Testing of Camelot
18 CASE STUDY 3: USING SURVEY METHODS AND EFFICIENCY METRICS
Results from the Study
Quotes and reviews
Evaluating Children’s Interactive Products provides numerous practical suggestions based on the authors’ considerable experience and wisdom. The authors present a powerful case for the importance of beginning the evaluation process by spending time with children and attempting to see the world through their eyes. The emphasis on the often overlooked aspects of evaluation, ,is refreshing and makes this book a “must read” for anyone truly dedicated to providing valuable insight on behalf of children and improving the products intended for their use. - Kristin Alexander, Group Research Manager, Microsoft
Evaluating Children's Interactive Products gives a great introduction to a wide range of methods for working with children. It is an excellent resource for students and researchers alike. - Dr Judy Robertson, Lecturer, Computer Science, Heriot-Watt University.
There is nothing more important than improving the lives of children. This book offers a way for industry professionals and academic researchers to understand the needs of young people, which can lead the way to better new technologies. There is a wealth of information, experience, and inspiration that the authors share that will ask you to first consider, or spend some time re-examining, what is possible and important for children.- Allison Druin, Director, Human-Computer Interaction Lab, Associate Professor, University of Maryland
Evaluating Children’s Interactive Products fills a void in the literature by providing practical advice based on the authors’ experience, a thorough survey of evaluation methods, as well as valuable real world examples. It brings together valuable information and experiences that would have previously required reading dozens of papers and several books. The authors have been heavily involved in the interaction design and children research community and it shows in the breadth and depth of topics covered, and in the content being up-to-date. This is a useful book for people in industry and for researchers in academia who are interested in conducting evaluations of technologies for children. The writing style is easy to follow and appropriate for native speakers of English as well as for those who are fluent in English but for whom English is a second language. - Juan Pablo Hourcade, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, University of Iowa