Abstract
End users' expertise in the development of new applications is acknowledged in user-centered and participatory design. Similarly, children's experience of what they find enjoyable and how they learn is a valuable source of inspiration for the design of products intended for them. In this paper, we explore experiences obtained from collaboration with elementary school children in the design of learning environments, based on three projects and three requirements gathering techniques. We also discuss how the children experienced the participation. The children's contribution yielded useful, both expected and unanticipated, outcomes in regard to the user interface and contents of the learning environments under development. Moreover, we present issues related to design collaboration with children, especially in terms of the children's feeling of ownership over the final outcome.
Highlights
The potential of involving children as active contributors in technology design is being increasingly acknowledged (e.g., [1,2,3])
We explore experiences obtained from collaboration with elementary school children in the design of learning environments, based on three projects and three requirements gathering techniques
Children’s early involvement in requirements gathering has revealed clues about, for example, gender differences in preferences related to technology, children’s navigation skills, ways of presenting textual information, application-specific contentrelated preferences, the variety of elements to be included in user interfaces and their structures, and children’s desire to personalize their applications [14, 15, 17,18,19]
Summary
The potential of involving children as active contributors in technology design is being increasingly acknowledged (e.g., [1,2,3]). The users’ contribution is minimal—or left out altogether—in all other design phases except for the testing and evaluation of solutions in different iterations To respond to this concern, researchers have developed and applied various requirements gathering techniques aiming to allow the users to initiate ideas early in the design process. Children’s early involvement in requirements gathering has revealed clues about, for example, gender differences in preferences related to technology, children’s navigation skills, ways of presenting textual information, application-specific contentrelated preferences, the variety of elements to be included in user interfaces and their structures, and children’s desire to personalize their applications [14, 15, 17,18,19].
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