Design and evaluation of tangible interfaces for primary school children

ABSTRACT

My research is on the design and evaluation of technologies for children that go beyond the desktop computer and which increasingly merge the physical and digital worlds, especially Tangible Technologies. The work involves methodology research on evaluation methods for children's interactive products: by looking at the traditional evaluation methods and in search for the methods for children's Tangible Technology. The research will contribute to paradigms such as the design and evaluation of 'disappearing computer' and 'tangible computing'. The research involves empirical evaluation studies and the design of prototype systems.

REFERENCES

• 1: Xu, D., E. Mazzone, and S. MacFarlane. Informant Design with Children - Designing Children's Tangible Technology. in International Workshop "Re-Thinking Technology in Museums". 2005. Limerick, Ireland.
• 2: O'Malley, C. and D. S. Fraser, Literature Review in Learning with Tangible Technologies. 2004, NESTA Futurelab.
• 3: Lancashire Museums, School Loans Service 2007 {cited 2007 10 February }; Available from: http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/education/museums/learnin g/schoolloans.asp.
• 4: MacFarlane, S., et al. Tutorial: Evaluating interactive products with and for children. in Conference of Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2004). 2004. Vienna, Austria.
• 5: Libby Hanna , Kirsten Risden , Kirsten Alexander, Guidelines for usability testing with children, interactions, v.4 n.5, p.9-14, Sept./Oct. 1997 [doi>10.1145/264044.264045]
• 6: Libby Hanna , Kirsten Risden , Mary Czerwinski , Kristin J. Alexander, The role of usability research in designing children's computer products, The design of children's technology, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc., San Francisco, CA, 1998
• 7: Donker, A. and P. Markopoulos. A comparison of Think-aloud, Questionnaires and Interviews for testing usability with children. in The 16th BCS British-HCI 2002. 2002. London, UK.
• 8: Markopoulos, P. and M. Bekker. How to compare usability testing methods with children participants. in Interaction Design and Children'02. 2002. Eindhoven, Netherland.
• 9: Read, J. C., S. J. MacFarlane, and C. Casey. Endurability, Engagement and Expectations: Measuring Children's Fun. in Interaction Design and Children Workshop. 2002. Eindhoven, Netherland.
• 10: Hoysniemi, J., P. Hamalainen, and L. Turkki, Using peer tutoring in evaluating the usability of a physically interactive computer game with children. Interacting with Computers, 2003. 15(2): p. 203--225.
• 11: Ilse E. H. van Kesteren , Mathilde M. Bekker , Arnold P. O. S. Vermeeren , Peter A. Lloyd, Assessing usability evaluation methods on their effectiveness to elicit verbal comments from children subjects, Proceedings of the 2003 conference on Interaction design and children, July 01-03, 2003, Preston, England [doi>10.1145/953536.953544]
• 12: Markopoulos, P. and M. Bekker, On the assessment of usability testing methods for children. Interacting with Computers, 2003. 15(2): p. 227--243.
• 13: Als, B. S., J. J. Jensen, and M. B. Skov. Exploring verbalization and collaboration of constructive interaction with children. in Interact 2005, Tenth International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 2005. Rome, Italy.
• 14: Baauw, E. and M. M. Bekker. A comparison of two analytical evaluation methods for children's computer games. in Interact 2005, Tenth International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 2005. Rome, Italy.
• 15: Baauw, E., M. M. Bekker, and W. Barendregt. A Structured Expert Evaluation Method for the Evaluation of Children's Computer Games'. in Interact 2005, Tenth International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. 2005. Rome, Italy.
• 16: Barendregt, W. and M. M. Bekker. Development and Evaluation of the Picture Cards Method. in Interact 2005, Tenth International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction 2005. Rome, Italy.
• 17: Barendregt, W., Evaluating fun and usability in computer games with children, in Department of Industrial Design. 2006, Eindhoven University of Technology: Eindhoven.
• 18: Ester Baauw , Mathilde M. Bekker , Panos Markopoulos, Assessing the applicability of the structured expert evaluation method (SEEM) for a wider age group, Proceedings of the 2006 conference on Interaction design and children, June 07-09, 2006, Tampere, Finland [doi>10.1145/1139073.1139095]
• 19: Erikson, K. A. and H. A. Simon, Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reports on Data. 1984: MIT Press.
• 20: Miyake, N., Constructive Interaction and the Iterative Process of Understanding. Cognitive Science, 1986. 10(2): p. 151 -- 177.
• 21: Monk, A., et al., Improving your human computer interface: a practical approach. 1993, Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall International.
• 22: Michael Scaife , Yvonne Rogers , Frances Aldrich , Matt Davies, Designing for or designing with? Informant design for interactive learning environments, Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems, p.343-350, March 22-27, 1997, Atlanta, Georgia, United States [doi>10.1145/258549.258789]
• 23: J. F. Kelley, An iterative design methodology for user-friendly natural language office information applications, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), v.2 n.1, p.26-41, Jan. 1984 [doi>10.1145/357417.357420]
• 24: Mazzone, E., R. Kelly, and D. Xu. Studying children's interactions with tangible devices: How will the video help? in Interact 2005, Tenth International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. 2005. Rome, Italy.
• 25: Diana Xu , Emanuela Mazzone , Stuart MacFarlane, In search for evaluation methods for children's tangible technology, Proceedings of the 2006 conference on Interaction design and children, p.171-172, June 07-09, 2006, Tampere, Finland [doi>10.1145/1139073.1139079]

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Evaluation/methodology

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Prototyping

Keywords:
children, design, evaluation, fun, methodology, tangible, usability