This link has been bookmarked by 132 people . It was first bookmarked on 11 Apr 2008, by Debra Hicks.
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Another change relates to reading. In the first study, many children were willing to read instructions before, say, starting a game. Now many kids behave more like adult users and refuse to read. This reduced willingness to read seems related to experience: the more experience our users had, the less they read.
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Like to try many options
Mine-sweeping the screen -
Very confusing
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Not used (young kids)
Relied on (older kids) -
Back button
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8th to 10th grade text for broad consumer audiences -
Readability level
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Advertising and promotions Can't distinguish from real content Ads avoided (banner blindness);
promos viewed skeptically -
avoid redundant navigation schemes for adult users
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And it's confusing when pages have multiple links to the same destination, because users don't know whether the various links actually point to the same place or have slightly different meanings.
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Kids suffer from a learned path bias: they tend to reuse the same method they've used before to initiate an action. In our studies, we often saw kids who had been successful with a certain approach to a site stick determinedly to that approach over and over again, even as it failed them during subsequent tasks that required them to use a different navigation scheme.
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The main predictor of children's ability to use websites is their amount of prior experience.
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On a more negative note, kids still don't understand the Web's commercial nature and lack the skills needed to identify advertising and treat it differently than real content.
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24 Feb 11
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20 Feb 11
Bobby Hobgood, Ed.D.Research study examining web use by elementary age children. kids tend to 'mine sweep' the screen clicking on everything, young kids never use the back button, etc
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29 Nov 10
Global BeachNew research with users aged 3–12 shows that older kids have gained substantial Web proficiency since our last studies, while younger kids still face many problems. Designing for children requires distinct usability approaches, including targeting content
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07 Nov 10
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line skov hansen"Resumé:
Ny
forskning med brugere i alderen 3-12 år viser, at ældre børn har fået væsentlig
Web færdighed siden vores sidste forsøg, mens yngre børn stadig står over for
mange problemer. Designe for børn kræver særskilt usability metoder, herunder
målretning indhold snævert til forskellige aldre af børn." -
11 Oct 10
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06 Oct 10
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28 Sep 10
Debra Gottsleben"New research with users aged 3–12 shows that older kids have gained substantial Web proficiency since our last studies, while younger kids still face many problems. Designing for children requires distinct usability approaches,
including targeting content narrowly for different ages of kids." -
24 Sep 10
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Kathy KaldenbergRT @mtechman: Alertbox: designing sites for children (and research on their finding behavior) http://www.useit.com/alertbox/children.html
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23 Sep 10
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Ewan McIntoshThe biggest finding in both the new and old research is the need to target very narrow age groups when designing for children. Indeed, there's no such thing as "designing for children," defined as everybody aged 3–12. At a minimum, you must distinguish be
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22 Sep 10
Jason PamentalGreat insights for users of all ages.
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21 Sep 10
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20 Sep 10
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Designing for children requires distinct usability approaches, including targeting content narrowly for different ages of kids.
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mainstream
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websites often have specific "kids' corner" sections — either as a public service or to build brand loyalty from an early age.
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Website design for kids is typically based purely on folklore about how kids supposedly behave — or, at best, on insights gleaned when designers observe their own children, who hardly represent average kids, typical Internet skills, or common knowledge about the Web
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To separate design myths from usability facts, we turn to empirical user research: observations of a broad range of children as they use a wide variety of websites.
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We told the children that they were the experts, and that we wanted them to teach us how kids use and think about websites.
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We then explained that, in order for us to learn, they had to explain what they were thinking at all times
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crayola.com, for example, we tested only 3- to 5-year-old users, and asked them to draw and print a portrait of their best friend.
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We're dealing with a completely new generation of kids.
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biggest change since Study 1 is that many of the behaviors we previously saw in the mid-range age group (6–8 years) are now more characteristic for the youngest users (3–5)
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Kids suffer from a learned path bias: they tend to reuse the same method they've used before to initiate an action
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At a minimum, you must distinguish between young (3–5), mid-range (6–8), and older (9–12) children.
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Each group has different behaviors, and the users get substantially more web-savvy as they get older.
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And, those different needs range far beyond the obvious imperative to design differently for pre-readers, beginning readers, and moderately skilled readers.
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Children are acutely aware of age differences: at one website, a 6-year-old said, "This website is for babies, maybe 4 or 5 years old. You can tell because of the cartoons and trains."
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t's important to retain a consistent user experience rather than bounce users among pages targeting different age groups
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by understanding what attracts children's attention, you can "bury" the links to service content for parents in places that kids are unlikely to click. Text-only footers worked well for this purpose.
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19 Sep 10
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Pru MitchellLike to try many options, Mine-sweeping the screen. Multiple/redundant navigation is very confusing. Font size 14 point (young kids). Avoid scrolling (young kids). Liked animation and sound. Advertising and promotions - can't distinguish from real content
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18 Sep 10
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17 Sep 10
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David WarlickNew research with users aged 3–12 shows that older kids have gained substantial Web proficiency since our last studies, while younger kids still face many problems. Designing for children requires distinct usability approaches, including targeting content narrowly for different ages of kids.
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Katie DayAnnotated link http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http://www.useit.com/alertbox/children.html
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Summary:
New research with users aged 3–12 shows that older kids have gained substantial Web proficiency since our last studies, while younger kids still face many problems. Designing for children requires distinct usability approaches, including targeting content narrowly for different ages of kids.
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15 Sep 10
Alejandro TortoliniNielsen Alertbox: Children's Websites: #Usability Issues in Designing for Kids http://ow.ly/2ER6s #usabilidad
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14 Sep 10
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Robert HaysChildren's websites: Usability issues in designing for kinds http://dld.bz/v58s
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Emma Duke-WilliamsSummary of a longer report - (also bookmarked). Contrasts between now & similar study 9 years ago.
usability HCI children UoP_EDCOM Nielsen UoP_WEBF1 UoP_WEBDEV
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All of Study 2 sessions were run in a lab. We tested some users in friendship pairs, and other individually. Pair sessions worked best for 6- to 8-year-old users.
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In contrast, for children younger than 6 or older than 8, individual sessions were just as good (and are obviously cheaper, as we had to recruit only one user per session).
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in Study 2, we tested some Web-wide tasks, asking users a general question and letting them find the answer on a site of their choosing.
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Over the past decade, the amount of time children spend on a computer has tripled, according to Kaiser Family Foundation research. And, according to both our research and that of others, the best predictor of how children use websites is how much online practice they have.
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These days, kids are on computers almost as soon as they can sit up and move a mouse or tap a screen.
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users who are 7 or older often exhibit fairly advanced behaviors. For example, now only the youngest kids have problems with scrolling.
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Now many kids behave more like adult users and refuse to read.
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the more experience our users had, the less they read.
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they tend to reuse the same method they've used before to initiate an action.
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At a minimum, you must distinguish between young (3–5), mid-range (6–8), and older (9–12) children.
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lack the skills needed to identify advertising
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13 Sep 10
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people's approach to video on websites has changed substantially over the last decade.)
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In one example, we observed literally the same usability problem again 9 years later: the Web pages for the Sesame Street TV series use a navigation bar with characters from the show. Unfortunately, in the UI, these icons serve a dual purpose as both navigation icons and features of a mini-game: as users mouse over them, the characters act as xylophone keys that play musical notes. Both 9 years ago and today, the xylophone feature distracted children from the navigation. And, as kids played tunes, they were disorientated by accidental clicking.
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or example, now only the youngest kids have problems with scrolling
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Children 9 years and older are more likely to scroll, and in fact do better with articles that are presented on one scrolling page rather than split into many small pages.
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ack button Not used (young kids)
Relied on (older kids) -
Scrolling Avoid (young kids)
Some (older kids) -
it's confusing when pages have multiple links to the same destination, because users don't know whether the various links actually point to the same place or have slightly different meanings. This often forces adult users to waste time clicking on the "same" link several times, causing navigational disorientation.
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Although too much navigation is annoying and confusing for adults, it can be devastating for children.
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(Although you might view both 5- and 6-year olds as "little kids," in the mind of a 6-year-old, the difference between them is vast.)
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kids as young as 3 can use websites, as long as they're designed according to the guidelines for this very young audience.
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we are londonJakob Nielsen article on designing websites for children
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10 Sep 10
haugen"Our usability study of kids found that they are as easily stumped by confusing websites as adults. Unlike adults, however, kids tend to view ads as content, and click accordingly. They also like colorful designs, but demand simple text and navigation."
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25 Jun 10
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14 Jun 10
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children are incapable of overcoming many usability problems.
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kids' lack of patience
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Kids also typically have slow connections and outdated software.
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Unclear navigational confirmation of the user's location
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Inconsistent navigation options, where the same destination was referred to in different ways
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Lack of perceived clickability affordances, such as overly flat graphics
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overlooked the links
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Fancy wording
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Extensive text was problematic for young children
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sections that were written above their current reading level.
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26 Jan 10
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In contrast, many of the children's sites had complex and convoluted interaction designs that stumped our test users. As one first-grade boy said, "The Internet is a lot of times BORING because you can't find anything when you go on to it."
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ncapable of overcoming many usability problems
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- Unclear navigational confirmation of the user's location confused users both within sites and when leaving them.
- Inconsistent navigation options, where the same destination was referred to in different ways, caused users to visit the same feature repeatedly, because they didn't know they had already been there.
- Non-standard interaction techniques caused predictable problems, such as making it impossible for users to select their preferred game using a "games machine."
- Lack of perceived clickability affordances, such as overly flat graphics, caused users to miss features because they overlooked the links.
- Fancy wording in interfaces confused users and prevented them from understanding the available choices.
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Extensive text was problematic for young children, who are just beginning to read. We observed severe usability problems when kids were inadvertently thrown into sections that were written above their current reading level.
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they often preferred to read a paragraph or so of instructions before starting a new game
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But kids click banners. They cannot yet distinguish between content and advertising. On the contrary, to kids, ads are just one more content source.
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AD" or "PAID." This tactic didn't work. Kids in our study didn't notice these subtle markers, but were attracted to the colorful characters and games in the ad.
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Boys were significantly more annoyed by verbose pages than were girls
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girls complained much more than boys when sites lacked good instructions
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- Unclear navigational confirmation of the user's location confused users both within sites and when leaving them.
- Inconsistent navigation options, where the same destination was referred to in different ways, caused users to visit the same feature repeatedly, because they didn't know they had already been there.
- Non-standard interaction techniques caused predictable problems, such as making it impossible for users to select their preferred game using a "games machine."
- Lack of perceived clickability affordances, such as overly flat graphics, caused users to miss features because they overlooked the links.
- Fancy wording in interfaces confused users and prevented them from understanding the available choices.
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Extensive text
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- Animation and sound effects were positive design elements for children; they often created a good first impression that encouraged users to stay with a site.
- Children were willing to "mine-sweep," scrubbing the screen with the mouse either to find clickable areas or simply to enjoy the sound effects that different screen elements played.
- Geographic navigation metaphors worked: Kids liked the pictures of rooms, villages, 3D maps, or other simulated environments that served as an overview and entry point to various site or subsite features.
- Children rarely scrolled pages and mainly interacted with information that was visible above the fold. (We also observed this behavior among adult Web users in 1994, but our more recent studies show that adults now tend to scroll Web pages.)
- Half of our young users were willing to read instructions; indeed, they often preferred to read a paragraph or so of instructions before starting a new game. In contrast, most adult users hate instructions and try to use websites without having to read about what they are supposed to do.
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children often use the Web for entertainment
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children click website advertisements
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cannot yet distinguish between content and advertising
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pend time acquainting children with the realities of Internet advertising and teach them how to recognize ads.
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Boys were significantly more annoyed by verbose pages
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Children want content that is entertaining, funny, colorful, and uses multimedia effects
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17 Jan 10
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26 Nov 08
Mark GearyOur usability study of kids found that they are as easily stumped by confusing websites as adults. Unlike adults, however, kids tend to view ads as content, and click accordingly. They also like colorful designs, but demand simple text and navigation.
marketing ads useit.com usability children webdesign Accessibility nielsen edfn465 cet765 literacy seed450 useit
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18 Nov 08
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17 Jun 08
posavasosOur usability study of kids found that they are as easily stumped by confusing websites as adults. Unlike adults, however, kids tend to view ads as content, and click accordingly. They also like colorful designs, but demand simple text and navigation.
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17 May 08
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21 Apr 08
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