Exploratory Study on the Contents Design of Mobile Edutainment for Preschool Children

Abstract

As there has been a recent increase in the number of children who use edutainment content based on smart devices, the current study conducted an exploratory research to identify the design factors of smart phones and tablet PCs that influence the usage of mobile edutainment content for preschool children. Semi-structured interviews with 20 females who are mothers of preschool children revealed that aesthetic factors, such as characters, color, and the expressional form of symbolic icons included in the edutainment contents, sound, ease of use, story, and interactivity had significant effects on children’s preference and intention to use edutainment. This study provides the planners, producers and marketers of mobile edutainment content for children with a guideline on which aspects of the content they need to place emphasis on when producing edutainment content. However, in the future studies, it will be necessary to provide quantitative results by carrying out an empirical study.