The learnability principle relates to improving usability of software, performance and productivity. It was formulated mainly for the adult user group. Children represent an important user group, but fewer guidelines exist for their educational and entertainment applications. This study compares these groups, addressing the question: “Does learnability of software interfaces have a different meaning for children and adults?”. A literature survey conducted on learnability and learning processes considered the meaning of learnability across generations. Users learning software systems were observed in a usability laboratory where eye tracking data could also be recorded. Insights emerged, from data analysis, showing different tactics when children and adults approached unfamiliar software and revealing aspects of interfaces they approached differently. The findings will help designers distinguish varying needs of users and improve learnability. An additional subprinciple of learnability, „engageability‟, is proposed. Factors that make products engaging for children are different from those engaging adults.

The child–environment interaction type, which involves touching and handling part of collections and displays, is less common in art museums. In addition, art museums demand many behavioural rules from their visitors. The adult caregivers, therefore, prefer that their preschool children participate in child-friendly activity programmes. Children could nonetheless learn by interacting with network technology applications in art museums since the use of digital technologies and mobile devices has become widespread to assist visitors’ learning in museums in general. Therefore, this thesis can relate to Child-Computer Interaction (CCI). This thesis addresses the problem that children often have isolated or separate experiences rather than enjoy regular art exhibitions with accompanying adults. This problem could be tackled by exploring how the child–technology interaction type combined with the child–adults/peers interaction could be considered to better engage children in viewing art exhibitions together with adults. The main research question is ‘what needs adult caregivers have for their preschool children's experience at art museums, that may be met by mobile educational apps?’. The main question can be divided into three parts: what are adult caregivers’ views about 1) their preschool children’s use of mobile devices and 2) educational apps and 3) their experience at art museums? By investigating the research question, this thesis aims to explore the possibility of a mobile activity/guide app that could facilitate combined experiences and collaborative learning for preschool children and their adult caregivers together at art museums. For this thesis, a survey is adopted as a research strategy and a web-based questionnaire as a data collection method to explore the views of parents with preschool children between three and five years old. Non-probability sampling was chosen, and the questionnaire invitation was distributed physically to preschools, in playgrounds, and Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden and online to Korean parents. For quantitative data analysis, statistical tests were employed. According to the results, despite the considerable period that preschool children have used mobile devices and the frequency, parents answered that their children always or sometimes need help navigating mobile devices. Parents recognise many benefits of children’s mobile device use but would not encourage the usage. Nevertheless, parents acknowledge the importance of conversational interactions but are unlikely to engage in shared activities. Parents like child-friendly programmes for being entertaining, engaging, age-appropriate, and stimulating for children. To enjoy regular exhibitions with children, parents want touchable objects, a children-friendly atmosphere, and open-to-all or free drop-in activities. It is because parents often struggle to have their children understand and follow the behavioural rules and keep their children interested in and focused on the exhibition. Overall, parents acknowledge the inevitable trend of using mobile devices for their preschool children, even though they are yet hesitant to proactively encourage the usage. Many parents experience difficulties engaging their young children in seeing regular art exhibitions and would like to have interactive elements that attract children’s attention. This thesis is valuable since museum professionals and educational app designers could use this thesis as a knowledge base to develop the app.

This thesis is about the design of technology for children from five to eight years of age. The majority of available guidelines and principles for design or evaluation of technology support the design of products aimed at adults. The limited guidelines available for design of young children's technology do not focus sufficiently on age-related requirements or they offer high-level advice that is only useful in the planning stages of design. Working from the assumption that knowledge available in the literature provides sufficient information to support this process, my aim with this study was to demonstrate how a dependable and useful set of guidelines for the design of technology for children aged five to eight years could be derived from an existing body of knowledge. Development of the guidelines firstly involved research into the psychological theories of children's development to identify those elements of development and the characteristics of children that may have bearing on children's use of technology. Secondly, the literature on children's development of specific skills such as literacy and mathematics was investigated. The available literature on young children's use of technology was studied next and, finally, the applicability of existing design guidelines and principles for children's products evaluated. Throughout this literature investigation the researcher gathered design-relevant factors that could potentially become design guidelines. Using qualitative data analysis techniques, more than five hundred such data elements were systematically coded, processed, analysed and categorised. The result is three hundred and fifty guidelines organised into a framework of six categories and twenty-six subcategories that integrates the relevant theoretical fields and provides practical support for designers. To demonstrate the credibility and usefulness of the emerging guidelines they were used to do an evaluation and re-design of an existing product aimed at the target group. The thesis reports in detail on the different stages of the research, and systematically takes the reader through the process of deriving guidelines from existing theory and research findings, and integrating them into a useful framework. / School of Computing / PhD. (Computer Science)

The learnability principle relates to improving usability of software, performance and productivity. It was formulated mainly for the adult user group. Children represent an important user group, but fewer guidelines exist for their educational and entertainment applications. This study compares these groups, addressing the question: “Does learnability of software interfaces have a different meaning for children and adults?”. A literature survey conducted on learnability and learning processes considered the meaning of learnability across generations. Users learning software systems were observed in a usability laboratory where eye tracking data could also be recorded. Insights emerged, from data analysis, showing different tactics when children and adults approached unfamiliar software and revealing aspects of interfaces they approached differently. The findings will help designers distinguish varying needs of users and improve learnability. An additional subprinciple of learnability, „engageability‟, is proposed. Factors that make products engaging for children are different from those engaging adults. / Computing / M. Sc. (Information Systems)

Parents and children increasingly spend time living apart due to marital separation and work travel. I investigated parent--child separation in both of these contexts to find that current technologies frequently do not meet the needs of families. The telephone is easy-to-use and ubiquitous but does not provide an engaging way of communicating with children. Videochat is more emotionally expressive and has a greater potential for engagement but is difficult to set up and cannot be used by a child without the help of an adult. Both telephone and videochat fail to meet the needs of remote parenting because they focus on conversation rather than care and play activities, which are the mechanism by which parents and children build closeness. I also saw that in both types of separation the motivation to connect at times conflicted with desire to reduce disruption of the remote household. To address some of these issues, I designed a system called the ShareTable, which provides easy-to-initiate videochat with a shared tabletop activity space. After an initial lab-based evaluation confirmed the promise of this approach, I deployed the ShareTable to four households (two sets of divorced families). I collected data about the families' remote interactions before and during the deployment. Remote communication more than doubled for each of these families while using the ShareTable and I saw a marked increase in the number of communication sessions initiated by the child. The ShareTable provided benefits over previous communication systems and supported activities that are impossible with other currently available technologies. One of the biggest successes of the system was in providing an overlapped video space that families appropriated to communicate metaphorical touch and a sense of closeness. However, the ShareTable also introduced a new source of conflict for parents and challenged the families as they tried to develop practices of using the system that would be acceptable to all involved. The families' approach to these challenges as well as explicit feedback about the system informs future directions for synchronous communication systems for separated families.

This thesis is about the design of technology for children from five to eight years of age. The majority of available guidelines and principles for design or evaluation of technology support the design of products aimed at adults. The limited guidelines available for design of young children's technology do not focus sufficiently on age-related requirements or they offer high-level advice that is only useful in the planning stages of design. Working from the assumption that knowledge available in the literature provides sufficient information to support this process, my aim with this study was to demonstrate how a dependable and useful set of guidelines for the design of technology for children aged five to eight years could be derived from an existing body of knowledge. Development of the guidelines firstly involved research into the psychological theories of children's development to identify those elements of development and the characteristics of children that may have bearing on children's use of technology. Secondly, the literature on children's development of specific skills such as literacy and mathematics was investigated. The available literature on young children's use of technology was studied next and, finally, the applicability of existing design guidelines and principles for children's products evaluated. Throughout this literature investigation the researcher gathered design-relevant factors that could potentially become design guidelines. Using qualitative data analysis techniques, more than five hundred such data elements were systematically coded, processed, analysed and categorised. The result is three hundred and fifty guidelines organised into a framework of six categories and twenty-six subcategories that integrates the relevant theoretical fields and provides practical support for designers. To demonstrate the credibility and usefulness of the emerging guidelines they were used to do an evaluation and re-design of an existing product aimed at the target group. The thesis reports in detail on the different stages of the research, and systematically takes the reader through the process of deriving guidelines from existing theory and research findings, and integrating them into a useful framework. / School of Computing / PhD. (Computer Science)

The learnability principle relates to improving usability of software, performance and productivity. It was formulated mainly for the adult user group. Children represent an important user group, but fewer guidelines exist for their educational and entertainment applications. This study compares these groups, addressing the question: “Does learnability of software interfaces have a different meaning for children and adults?”. A literature survey conducted on learnability and learning processes considered the meaning of learnability across generations. Users learning software systems were observed in a usability laboratory where eye tracking data could also be recorded. Insights emerged, from data analysis, showing different tactics when children and adults approached unfamiliar software and revealing aspects of interfaces they approached differently. The findings will help designers distinguish varying needs of users and improve learnability. An additional subprinciple of learnability, „engageability‟, is proposed. Factors that make products engaging for children are different from those engaging adults. / Computing / M. Sc. (Information Systems)

The usage of Internet has increased among children. Much of that use comes from watching videos and playing games. There are a few services that cater to this need and Barnkanalen is one of them. However, in order for the service to be usable to children it needs to be adapted for them and content needs to be easily available. Children with no or little reading ability and writing skills need extra attention since they simply can not type correctly what they are searching for into a search field. This paper explores children’s preferred search strategies and what problems they experience on one of the major websites designed for children by conducting a user study. The user study was based upon a usability evaluation method called Constructive Interaction, where the children collaborated in pairs to solve search related tasks given to them. It was conducted at an after-school center in Bromma, Stockholm. 19 children aged 6-8 participated. The results indicate that the computer user interface and search functionalities of Barnkanalen need some improvements. The children with more developed spelling skills often have no problems, finding what they are supposed to find, when they know the title of the show. When the children did not have the knowledge of the titles or could not spell them they experienced some difficulties in finding what they were looking for. Most would browse the page, scrolling through the content being presented in horizontal lists. Some children got stuck in repetitive search loops; some were not paying enough attention and missed what they were looking for when it showed up on the screen. The children also had a hard time clicking on what they wanted to click at. Only four children had prior experience of visiting Barnkanalen on a computer but almost all of the children had experience using Barnkanalen on tablets or smartphones. The results led to recommendations on how to improve the site. For example, show titles in English should be allowed to be spelled phonetically, certain buttons need to be bigger, making Barnplay the start page of Barnkanalen and a virtual assistant is proposed. / Barns användande av internet ökar.  En stor del av användningen består av att titta på videos och spela spel. Det finns ett par tjänster som uppfyller det här behovet och Barnkanalen är en av dem. För att tjänsten ska vara användbar för barn så måste den vara anpassad för dem och innehållet måste vara lättillgängligt. Barn med lite eller som helt saknar läs och skriv-färdigheter behöver extra hjälp eftersom de inte utan problem kan skriva in vad de söker efter i ett sökfält. Den här uppsatsen undersöker barns föredragna sökstrategier och de problem de upplever på en av de största webbsidorna som är designad för barn genom att genomföra en användarstudie. Användarstudien var baserad på en användbarhetsutvärderingsmetod som heter konstruktiv interaktion (Constructive Interaction), där barnen samarbetar i par med att lösa sökrelaterade uppgifter. Studien utfördes på ett fritidshem i Bromma, Stockholm. 19 barn i åldrarna 6-8 år deltog. Resultaten indikerar att datorgränssnittet och sökfunktionerna på Barnkanalen behöver vissa förbättringar. Barn med bättre utvecklad skrivkunnighet hade oftast inga problem med att söka rätt på vad de skulle hitta, när de visste vad programmet de letade efter hette. När barnen saknade kunskap om vad programmet hette eller inte kunde stava till det så hade de problem med att finna vad de letade efter. De flesta undersökte sidan, skrollade genom innehållet som var placerat i horisontella listor. Vissa barn fastnade i ett repetitivt sökbeteende; vissa var inte uppmärksamma nog och missade det de letade efter när det dök upp på skärmen. Barnen hade också en del problem att klicka på det de ville klicka på. Bara fyra barn hade tidigare erfarenhet av att använda Barnkanalen på en dator medan nästan alla hade använt Barnkanalen på en pekplatta eller smarttelefon. Resultaten från studien ledde fram till ett par rekommendationer kring hur sidan kan förbättras. Till exempel, program med engelsk titel bör kunna sökas med fonetisk stavning, vissa knappar bör förstoras, göra Barnplay till startsida för Barnkanalen och en virtuell assistent föreslås.

Tesis por compendio / Los juegos serios colaborativos tienen un impacto positivo en el comportamiento y el aprendizaje, pero siguen desarrollándose para plataformas tecnológicas tradicionales como videoconsolas y ordenadores de sobremesa o portátiles, los cuales han sido identificados como sub-óptimos para niños en diversos estudios. En su lugar, el uso de dispositivos móviles como tabletas y teléfonos inteligentes presenta diversas ventajas: son económicamente asequibles, están ampliamente distribuidos, y pueden ser transportados, lo cual permite la actividad física y poder iniciar un juego sin necesitar que los usuarios se trasladen a una localización fija, especialmente dedicada para tal fin. Además, combinar varios de estos dispositivos y coordinar la interacción entre ellos en lo que se denomina Entorno Multi-Pantalla (EMP) proporciona beneficios adicionales para la colaboración tales como una mayor escalabilidad, conciencia del espacio de trabajo, paralelismo y fluidez de las interacciones. La interacción en estos entornos multi-tableta es por tanto un aspecto crítico. Los dispositivos móviles están diseñados para ser interactuados mediante el toque de los dedos principalmente, lo cual es muy sencillo y directo, pero está normalmente limitado a la pequeña dimensión de las pantallas, lo que puede conllevar la oclusión de la pantalla y la infrautilización del espacio periférico. Por esta razón, esta tesis se centra en la exploración de otro mecanismo de interacción que puede complementar al táctil: interacciones tangibles alrededor del dispositivo. Las interacciones tangibles están basadas en la manipulación de objetos físicos, lo que presenta un valor adicional en la educación de los niños puesto que resuena con los manipulativos educativos tradicionales y permite la exploración del mundo físico. Por otra parte, la explotación del espacio que envuelve a las pantallas tiene diversos beneficios adicionales para actividades educativas colaborativas: reducida oclusión de la pantalla (lo cual puede incrementar la conciencia del espacio de trabajo), el uso de objetos tangibles como contenedores de información digital que puede ser transportada de forma continua entre dispositivos, y la identificación de un determinado estudiante a través de la codificación de su ID en un operador tangible (lo cual facilita el seguimiento de sus acciones y progreso durante el juego). Esta tesis describe dos enfoques distintos para construir juegos educativos colaborativos en EMPs utilizando interacciones tangibles alrededor de los dispositivos. Una, denominada MarkAirs, es una solución óptica aérea que no necesita ningún hardware adicional aparte de las tabletas excepto diversas tarjetas de cartón impresas. La otra, Tangibot, introduce un robot tangiblemente controlado y otro atrezo físico en el entorno, y se basa en tecnología RFID. Ambas interacciones son respectivamente evaluadas, y se observa que MarkAirs es usable y poco exigente tanto para adultos como para niños, y que se pueden realizar con éxito gestos de grano fino encima de las tabletas con ella. Además, al aplicarse en juegos colaborativos, puede ayudar a reducir la oclusión de las pantallas y la interferencia entre las distintas acciones de los usuarios, lo cual es un problema que puede surgir en este tipo de escenarios cuando solamente se dispone de interacciones táctiles. Se evalúa un juego educativo colaborativo con MarkAirs con niños de educación primaria, y se concluye que este mecanismo es capaz de crear experiencias de aprendizaje colaborativo y de presentar un valor añadido en términos de experiencia de usuario, aunque no en eficiencia. Con respecto a Tangibot, se muestra que controlar colaborativamente un robot móvil mediante unas palas tangibles con cierta precisión es factible para niños a partir de los tres años de edad, e incluso para personas mayores con un deterioro cognitivo leve. Además, proporciona una experiencia divertida / Collaborative serious games have a positive impact on behavior and learning, but the majority are still being developed for traditional technological platforms, e.g., video consoles and desktop/laptop computers, which have been deemed suboptimal for children by several studies. Instead, the use of handheld devices such as tablets and smartphones presents several advantages: they are affordable, very widespread, and mobile---which enables physical activity and being able to engage in a game without requiring users to gather around a fixed, dedicated, location. Plus, combining several of these devices and coordinating interactions across them in what is called a Multi-Display Environment (MDE) brings on additional benefits to collaboration like higher scalability, awareness, parallelism, and fluidity of the interaction. How to interact with these multi-tablet environments is therefore a critical issue. Mobile devices are designed to be interacted mainly via touch, which is very straightforward but usually limited to the small area of the displays, which can lead to the occlusion of the screen and the underuse of the peripheral space. For this reason, this thesis focuses on the exploration of another interaction mechanism that can complement touch: tangible around-device interactions. Tangible interactions are based on the manipulation of physical objects, which have an added value in childhood education as they resonate with traditional learning manipulatives and enable the exploration of the physical world. On the other hand, the exploitation of the space surrounding the displays has several potential benefits for collaborative-learning activities: reduced on-screen occlusion (which may increase workspace awareness), the use of tangible objects as containers of digital information that can be seamlessly moved across devices, and the identification of a given student through the encoding of their ID in a tangible manipulator (which facilitates the tracking of their actions and progress throughout the game). This thesis describes two different approaches to build collaborative-learning games for MDEs using tangible around-device interactions. One, called MarkAirs, is a mid-air optical solution relying on no additional hardware besides the tablets except for several cardboard printed cards. The other, Tangibot, introduces a tangible-mediated robot and other physical props in the environment and is based on RFID technology. Both interactions are respectively evaluated, and it is observed that MarkAirs is usable and undemanding both for adults and for children, and that fine-grained gestures above the tablets can be successfully conducted with it. Also, when applied to collaborative games, it can help reduce screen occlusion and interference among the different users' actions, which is a problem that may arise in such settings when only touch interactions are available. A collaborative learning game with MarkAirs is evaluated with primary school children, revealing this mechanism as capable of creating collaborative learning experiences and presenting an added value in user experience, although not in performance. With respect to Tangibot, we show how collaboratively controlling a mobile robot with tangible paddles and achieving certain precision with it is feasible for children from 3 years of age, and even for elderly people with mild cognitive impairment. Furthermore, it provides a fun experience for children and maintains them in a constant state of flow. / Els jocs seriosos col·laboratius tenen un impacte positiu en el comportament i l'aprenentatge, però continuen sent desenvolupats per a plataformes tecnològiques tradicionals com videoconsoles i ordinadors de sobretaula o portàtils, els quals han sigut identificats com sub-òptims per a xiquets en diversos estudis. D'altra banda, l'ús de dispositius mòbils com ara tabletes i telèfons intel·ligents presenta diversos avantatges: són econòmicament assequibles, estan àmpliament distribuïts i poden ser transportats, la qual cosa permet l'activitat física i poder iniciar un joc sense necessitat de què els usuaris es traslladen a una localització fixa i especialment dedicada per a eixa finalitat. A més, combinar diversos d'estos dispositius i coordinar la interacció entre ells en el que es denomina Entorn Multi-Pantalla (EMP) proporciona beneficis addicionals per a la col·laboració tals com una major escalabilitat, consciència de l'espai de treball, paral·lelisme i fluïdesa de les interaccions. La interacció amb estos entorns multi-tableta és per tant crítica. Els dispositius mòbils estan dissenyats per a ser interactuats mitjançant tocs de dit principalment, mecanisme molt senzill i directe, però està normalment limitat a la reduïda dimensió de les pantalles, cosa que pot ocasionar l'oclusió de la pantalla i la infrautilització de l'espai perifèric. Per aquesta raó, la present tesi se centra en l'exploració d'un altre mecanisme d'interacció que pot complementar al tàctil: interaccions tangible al voltant dels dispositius. Les interaccions tangibles estan basades en la manipulació d'objectes físics, cosa que presenta un valor addicional en l'educació dels xiquets ja que ressona amb els manipulatius tradicionals i permet l'exploració del món físic. D'altra banda, l'explotació de l'espai que envolta a les pantalles té diversos beneficis addicionals per a activitats educatives col·laboratives: reduïda oclusió de la pantalla (la qual cosa pot incrementar la consciència de l'espai de treball), l'ús d'objectes tangibles com a contenidors d'informació digital que pot ser transportada de forma continua entre dispositius, i la identificació d'un estudiant determinat a través de la codificació de la seua identitat en un operador tangible (cosa que facilita el seguiment de les seues accions i progrés durant el joc). Aquesta tesi descriu dos enfocaments distints per a construir jocs educatius col·laboratius en EMPs utilitzant interaccions tangibles al voltant dels dispositius. Una, denominada MarkAirs, és una solució òptica aèria que no precisa de cap maquinari addicional a banda de les tabletes, exceptuant diverses targetes de cartró impreses. L'altra, Tangibot, introdueix un robot controlat tangiblement i attrezzo físic addicional en l'entorn, i es basa en tecnologia RFID. Ambdues interaccions són avaluades respectivament, i s'observa que MarkAirs és usable i poc exigent tant per a adults com per a xiquets, i que es poden realitzar gestos de granularitat fina dalt de les tabletes amb ella. A més a més, en aplicar-se a jocs col·laboratius, pot ajudar a reduir l'oclusió de les pantalles i la interferència entre les distintes accions dels usuaris, problema que pot aparèixer en este tipus d'escenaris quan solament es disposa d'interaccions tàctils. S'avalua un joc educatiu col·laboratiu amb MarkAirs amb xiquets d'educació primària, i es conclou que aquest mecanisme és capaç de crear experiències d'aprenentatge col·laboratiu i de presentar un valor afegit en termes d'experiència d'usuari, tot i que no en eficiència. Respecte a Tangibot, es mostra que controlar conjuntament un robot mòbil mitjançant unes pales tangibles amb certa precisió és factible per a xiquets a partir de tres anys i inclús per a persones majors amb un lleu deteriorament cognitiu. A més, proporciona una experiència divertida per als xiquets i els manté en un estat constant de flow. / García Sanjuan, F. (2018). CREAME: CReation of Educative Affordable Multi-surface Environments [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/101942 / Compendio

Children’s use of digital technologies is rapidly increasing, with caregivers reporting that children spend more time on their devices than engaging in exercise, reading books, or socializing (Christofferson & Karlsson, 2023). The shift in children’s behavior has caregivers and organizations debating the risks and seeking ways to protect children. This study aims to promote a healthy lifestyle for children aged 7 to 11 through digital technologies by designing a proposal for a video streaming service interface, specifically Telia Play Kids. The study uses the digital diet approach by Orben (2022) and research on child-computer interaction to understand the technology’s impact on children. The research questions aim to identify which aspects of children’s digital lives need to be considered and to determine which design features need to be prioritized when designing a video streaming service interface. The study was conducted through a research through design process where the target group’s needs were investigated through interviews, findings were elaborated upon into concepts, and a prototype was designed. The findings indicated the importance of understanding which factors influence children’s digital lives, being aware of the consequences of the digital life, and which design improvements were needed to accommodate both children and caregivers. Design features prioritized in the final prototype included supporting visual perception, children’s cognition, language, and interests in addition to experiences focusing on the child’s well-being and caregiver’s needs. The study concludes that children’s digital lives are complex, highlighting the need to adapt video streaming services and other digital technologies through dialogue with children and caregivers but also through research on child-computer interaction.