Kids and the web
Susan Tropeano
stropeano at verizon.net
Mon Nov 29 16:03:03 EST 2004
Below is a summary of sources of information included in my research
for this school district library project. Since so many people asked, I
am listing it all, not just what came from this group. Thank you to all
who responded.
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Alertbox 04/2002 (J. Neilsen)
Summary available at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020414.html
"Even though participants in our study were very young, they often had
the greatest success using websites intended for adults. Sites such as
Amazon and Yahoo! are committed to utter simplicity and compliance with
Web design conventions, and have become so easy to use that they
support little kids very well. "
"Also, kids are keenly aware of their age and differentiate sharply
between material that is appropriate for them and material for older or
younger kids, however close in age they might be. At one website, a
six-year-old said, "This website is for babies, maybe four or five
years old. You can tell because of the cartoons and trains."
"Out of sight is out of mind. Most younger kids don't understand about
page scrolling, so be sure that your most important site information is
visible without scrolling. If kids can't see an element or link without
scrolling the page, then they may never see it at all. "
• 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.
==============
Whitepaper: Kids Usability Testing - What We Learned
http://newsletter.refinery.com/e_article000300832.cfm
"While the lack of instructions or clear labeling and the unfamiliar
interface might deter adults from even getting started, by and large
the children’s natural curiosity led them to dive right in. By dragging
things to different places and clicking everywhere, they quickly
figured out how it all worked. "
===============
Human-Computer Interaction Lab, University of Maryland
(http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/pubs/tech-reports.shtml)
Many related papers including one particularly pertinent:
"Young Children’s Search Strategies and Construction of Search
Queries" -Allison Druin and others.
- "While the use of text is not an issue for older children and adults,
young children (4-7 years of age), have difficulty when it comes to
typing skills, spelling, and syntax comprehension."
- "...children’s searches became more efficient with each subsequent
item, indicating a practice effect."
- "So, for the most part, children successfully employed a strategy of
trying to find each target animal in as few steps as possible, in an
extremely focused and goal-directed manner."
- very interesting information about "scaffolding" - "the display of
“in-progress” search results on the same screen, while the search query
is being formulated, makes it extremely easy for children to see
whether their queries have been formulated correctly or not, and to
adjust and modify their queries when needed."
===============
Kids prize Web Simplicity, reject complex interfaces
Larry Magid The Mercury News
http://www.larrysworld.com/articles/sjm_usability.htm
"Like adults, kids want to be able to find information quickly and
easily. It may come as a surprise to some children's Web site
developers who like to use odd colors and weird type faces that kids
want sites with text that is legible and easy to read. "
" Even young children have invested considerable time learning to use
standard navigational tools. Why not take advantage of that learning
instead of baffling the kids by overly creative (i.e. non-standard)
interfaces?"
" In other words, a bit of non-gratuitous sizzle is OK, as long as it
helps lead to child in the direction of the content."
===============
When Kids Use the Web
http://www.pantos.org/ts/papers/wkutw/
"The weight of empirical evidence to date clearly favors the conclusion
that the [BACK] button is an integral element in Web navigation."
"However, we observed that "knowing what to try next" may be less
important than simply trying something different. "
" We have encountered widespread speculation among design professionals
that visually rich graphical presentation is a vital element in
capturing and holding the attention of younger users. Yet prior
research suggests a minimal relationship between graphical elements and
either search success [10] or site traffic [1]."
"The implications of this finding are twofold. The designers of the
Disney site have succeeded in creating a visually compelling
environment, complete with professional-quality graphics,
splash-screens, and ubiquitous animation, all of which presumably
contribute to the childrens' overall assessment of Disney as more fun
to use. Yet our results suggest that task-related variables (such as
question complexity) are more important than specific interface
elements in determining the success of children's information-seeking
efforts."
================
American Library Association Great Websites for Kids
ttp://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/greatwebsites/greatwebsitesforkids/
greatwebsites.htm
• The text should be easy to read, and not cluttered with distracting
graphics, fonts, and backgrounds.
================
Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County
http://www.plcmc.org/
Wrote book "Weaving a Library Web: A Guide to Developing Children's
Websites"
-separate interfaces for "kids" and "teens"
-very small body, textual left nav remains.
-Homework Help - largely textual
-for teens - excellent site!
================
Some interesting websites to consider:
http://www.icdlbooks.org/
International Children's Digital Library
Search tools on front page - options for kids 3-13
Barley Sheaf School
http://www.frsd.k12.nj.us/barleylibrary/
narrow format, clear labels, colorful graphics
Library at Casis Elementary School
http://www.austinschools.org/casis/library/findit/
library website award - dewey system
http://www.palmdps.act.edu.au/
The Resource Centre at Palmerston District Primary School
http://www.palmdps.act.edu.au/resource_centre/rc_main.htm
Room graphic/comfort zone -
Ask Jeeves for Kids www.ajkids.com uses a stack of books similar to the
one Sue Hardy likes, as a left nav bar.
<homepagewstudytoolsoff_05.gif>
<homepagewstudytoolsoff_06.gif>
<homepagewstudytoolsoff_07.gif>
<homepagewstudytoolsoff_08.gif>
<homepagewstudytools_09.gif>
Click on World Atlas - slow to load.
================
"Designing a Digital Library for Young Children: An Intergenerational
Partnership"
An interesting paper about using children to help you produce a design
for children. Holds the very popular belief that adults (including
teachers and parents) are not good representatives of what will work
for children. I can send this document to anyone interested.
================
THE SCHOOL LIBRARY AS INFORMATION PROVIDER: THE HOME PAGE
Dr. Laurel A. Clyde, Library and Information Science Department, Univ
of Iceland
This is an older information site focused on school library websites.
Unfortunately it hasn't been updated since 1997. However, Dr. Clyde has
another site http://www.hi.is/~anne/index.html that has more recent
information, including school library best practices, school libraries
online directory, and school library award program.
================
The January 2005 issue of Communications of the ACM will include a
special section focused on "Interaction Design and Children".
Description of coming next month on Page 22, Dec 2004/Vol 47, No 12.
================
Large, Andrew, et al. "Design Criteria for Children's Web Portals: The
Users Speak Out," Journal of the American Society for Information
Science and Technology, 53(2):79-94, 2002.
================
There was extensive research conducted on how Danish school children
use the Web as part of a project to build a library search interface. A
test version of the English language version of the search product that
resulted from that research is at http://test.indexdata.com/yakpac.
Your browser will need a Macromedia Flash plugin for the software to
work.
================
Educause 2004 Presentation called "Educating the Net Generation" more
info here: http://www.educause.edu/e04/proceedingsessions/5472
================
Christine Borgman on children's use of a Dewey-based online library
catalog of science materials. A couple papers were published in the
ASIS bulletin. This is her papers list, just look for "sciencelibrary"
: http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/cborgman/publications.html
================
some quantitative data from Nielsen//Netratings:
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?1003151 that can be of some
interest to you. Other links:
http://www.cais-acsi.ca/proceedings/2004/large_2004.pdf
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/88512325/ABSTRACT
================
http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2002/nov/childrenslibrary/
================
Here are some papers that might interest you:
Creating Online Galleries of Information for K-12 Audiences
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2001/papers/sihweil/sihweil.html
Having fun or finding information? Usability for kids sections of Web
sites
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2003/papers/arseneault/arseneault.html
Making Web Sites for Young Audiences
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2004/papers/schwartz/schwartz.html
================
Susan Tropeano
http://www.clearuse.com
Improving Internet Content, One Website at a Time
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