For the brief our target audience could either be children aged around 10 or an undergrad student. I decided to choose a 10 year old child as they can use technologies for more learning and interactive ways as they ask questions and want to learn more were as undergraduates use devices for a more private and anti social experience and can lack that want to learn so I therefore believe it wouldn't be useful to design a diverse educational tool for this age group as it would not get used.
The use of technology has grown so much even since I was 10 years old. Studies now suggest that children are experiencing less time in creative outdoor play and more time inside using screens, sometimes causing isolation and loneliness and its not really surprising when you start to think about the medical and technological advancements of the last 20 years. Today children are more easily to keep in touch with their friends and family through the use of devices and social media and can ask them to come out to play by dropping them a message instead of calling to their front door like I used to do. Children's exposure to technology and the internet is getting earlier and earlier with children as young as 2 being glued to tablets or their parents phone.
Despite all the negative impacts that come with the earlier introduction of technology in a children's live, there is also some good outcomes such as being able to use digital learning resources within schools or at home and using search engines safely to learn more about topics which interest them. This is achieved by kids safe mode which platforms such as Netflix and YouTube have introduced which allows children to extend their learning but in a safer environment.
To help get a fundamental knowledge on how designing for children is different to designing for adults and to get some child friendly user ideas for my project I read the article “Designing for Kids: Cognitive Considerations” by Nielson Norman Group. It discusses the importance of understanding children's cognitive abilities to design better user interfaces for them.
Using the Piaget’s Development Theory, the development of children's cognitive skills vary at different developmental stages with children in our age range of 7-11 in the concrete operational stage where they learn how to use logic to reason about the world. As designers should consider age-appropriate interactions for these children and take into consideration that they are also still cannot full understand others emotions, their intentions, have cognitive flexibility and executive function.
The recommendations for designing for children are that you should take into consideration children's limited ability to process information and their need for clear video and audio instructions. Through studies there was a big difference in how children successfully interacted with a game that had clear instructions that helped the child accomplish a task and how they struggled to play a game that had very little/ no instructions and they were left to work it out for themselves.
However when providing instructions for children it must both be engaging and rely heavily on a child's ability to visually process meaning interfaces should be visually engaging and intuitive and the use of icons and images can enhance understanding. Other ways to help children perform tasks or interact is building upon their mental models and current understanding and knowledge of the world as this reduces the effort required for kids to understand how websites or apps work. An example of this from the NN group is a colouring book game and how children were able to easily use it due to the familiar environment and when making mistakes they turned to using an eraser tool rather than an undo button due to their experience and mental model of drawing.
<aside> 💭 Reflection
From this article, I have been able to understand a little better how we should be designing for children from creating ideas which avoid complex or abstract concepts and instead producing ideas which are easy to visually understand, provide immediate feedback and guidance and are based off mental models children will already have due to prior knowledge and previous experiences. Understanding and executing all this is crucial for designing effective and engaging user interfaces for children and their interactivity with your product.
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To understand the best way to communicate with children and to gain as well as maintain their attention I read a Design102 blog on five tips to help you engage children. I already know the most effective way to communicate with an audience is to ensure they have a good understanding of what is expected from them and how to use the product or service however this is sometimes oversimplified or neglected when it comes to designing for children. For children, especially within our sustainable goals project it is so important to ensure we communicate with children in a way they understand.
Characters
The first tip was creating or using a friendly, approachable character or mascot as it is a great way to engage children with certain subjects and keep them connected to the content. Children need something or someone they can relate to and would want to learn from. The best characters aren’t always human though with some of the best children's mascots being animals. An example I though of is the use of Pudsey the bear to educate children on the charity “Children in Need” or when I was in primary school we had an owl which was the school mascot and enforced the schools motto and rules.
I took a look at some of the best represented animal mascots and their meanings such as a bear representing Strength and Healing, the dog representing loyalty and friendship or an owl representing wisdom and prestige. When I decide how I’m going to represent my SDGs, I can look back at these and further research the best fit for my project.
Colour
The next tip was to use colour is a thoughtful way which is engaging as this is what attracts children, however we should avoid designing using the stereotypical colours such as pink being reserved for girls and blue for boys. Instead we should be looking at the mood and feelings to colour conveys to the child, integrating them into part of the storytelling, helping children identify the topic tone and intended emotional response.
However I believe the whole product does not need to be bold and bright as it can actually become harmful to the UX design as when everything is bold and bright it makes it harder to understand what elements are the interactive elements and what are static elements which would result in them aimlessly clicking to find the interactive spots. To solve this we could keep the brightest and boldest colours to help provide and allow children to understand the feedback such as bright is wrong or stop and bright green is right or go. By using colour in this way consistently with children, it will reinforce the message and the consistency will allow them to make visual links between getting the answer right and scoring a point.
Storytelling
Storytelling is important to form a compelling narrative when designing for children as it will help to hold their interest when learning about more serious topics. By using our characters to create a story there is a way of simplifying more complex topics such as the SDGs into a way which children would be able to digest better and understand. Storytelling also allows us to include playful references which made the story more exciting and engaging such as extra characters and their personalities.
To The Point