Co-designing technology with children

How to involve children

in the design process

July 2016

Monica FerraroUser Experience

Researcher

@londrareale@playhows

Design a mobile application

Target users: 4 – 6 years old

1. Understand current theory and practice on working with children as design partners

2. Understand current theory and practice on applying creativity techniques while designing technology with children

3. Design and develop a low-fidelity prototype of an iPad application

4. Create wireframes for the iPad application

5. Evaluate the wireframes of the iPad application

3

Objectives

Best practise working with children as design partner

Nesset, V., and Large, A. 2004. Children in the information technology design process: A review of theories and their applications. Library and Information Science Research, 26, 140–161.

Tester

ObservationPassive role

BrainstormingPost – it notes

Prototypes at end

INFORMANTTester or

Design partner

Active part in design

EQUALITY FROM THE BEGINNING

Cooperative Inquiry

“Cooperative Inquiry is a method of partnering to design technology for children with children”

Children are considered equal to adult designers, and directly contribute to ideas for the design of technology

Cooperative Inquiry

Druin, A. 2002. The Role of Children in the Design of New Technology. Behaviour and Information Technology, 21(1), pp. 1-25.

Use technology while adults observe

Test prototypes

Input on design sketches and low-fidelity prototypes

Equal stakeholders as adults in all design process

Cooperative Inquiry

• No single technique can give teams all the answers they are looking for

• A combinational of techniques has been developed and used

• These techniques do not give a magic formula for working with children, but an approach to gather data, generate ideas and developing prototypes

Techniques and methods

Bag of stuff Sticky noting

LayeredElaboration

Mixing ideas

Bag of stuff

• Divide in groups of 2 -3 children and 1 – 3 adults• Sit down on the floor• Use of large piece of paper to collaborate• Once the prototype is created, each group present

own idea• 1 adult take notes of ideas on a white board• Write down most popular, surprising, and most

repeated ideas• Group discuss which idea to take forward

Sticky notes

• Technique for critiquing existing technology• All adults and children use the technology• All write on sticky notes what they like, don’t like and

suggestions for changes• Each like, dislike and suggestion are written on a

different sticky note• They are all grouped in categories and sub-

categories• Outcome is an informal frequency analysis which

shows possible trends

Layered elaboration

• They start with a base design on which to elaborate or iterate

• They use sheets of clear acetate to add new ideas without ‘destroying’ the original design, or the work of others

• Between iterations they hold stand up meetings in which design partners quickly explain their ideas before the design is passed on to another group for further elaboration.

Mixing ideas The mixing ideas technique is a merging individual idea into bigger, collaborative ideas.

GOALS FOR CO-DESIGN COOPERATION INQUIRY TECHNIQUES1. Idea generation • Bag of stuff

• Sticky noting• Layered elaboration• Mixing ideas

2. Setting expectations • Wear informal clothes• Adults at the same level as children• No hand raising• Use of first names• There are not right or wrong answers

and ideas3. Reflecting as a group • Group presenting

• Adults debriefing

Techniques and methods

Best practise on creativity techniques

Parking spot I spy Join the pictures

Cups game Find the right way Find all letters

Observe how children move objects Observe how children match objects Observe how children match objects

Children’s attention is Observe how children join objects Observe how children move letters

Games session

Creativity technique to generate ideas

Design session

Design session

Design session

Design session - Mixing ideas

Design session - Playmobil - Lego

Design session - Carton board iPad

Design session

Techniques used

•To give them importance• Purpose of the session• What design is – What an application is• “Inventors of technology”

•To generate design ideas• Dressing up• Mixing ideas

•To build a low-fidelity prototype• Colour pens and paper• Lego and Playmobil• Stickers• Carton board iPad

Lessons learned

•Have clear goals in mind

•Be organised and open minded

•Make the children feel important

•Let them lead – think yourself as a student

•Open-ended and conversational questions

•Keep it moving

•Be honest – tell children you need their help

•Thank and reward the children

Why involve children in the design process?

Users…like everyone else!

“It is not easy for an adult to step into a child’s world, and likewise it is not easy for a child to step into an adult’s world.”

Prof Allison Druin

• To give them a voice in design

• To give them power

• To come up with more ideas that we never would think about without them

• Adults are experts in their own field – children are experts in being children!

Thank you