UCD2014 Usability testing with young children

1. 1 Usability Testing with young children UCD14 24th October 2014 Monica Ferraro @londrareale

2. 2 Monica Ferraro UXPA UK Secretary User Experience Researcher Freelancer @londrareale @UXPAUK About me

3. Usability Testing 3 with young children

4. 4 Former user tes*ng

5. 5 DISCUSSION PANEL ON USABILITY TESTING Rolf Molich Steve Krug David Travis Jakob Biesterfeldt

6. 6 User tes*ng with children

9. 9 • 42 leMer sounds • Diagraphs: combina2on of le6ers

10. 10 • Understand Goals how children of different age (3 -‐ 6 years old) engage with the app • Iden*fy any design problems • Find any key difficul*es experienced • Find key areas for improvement • What parts are confusing? • What parts do children like? • Where are the bugs?

11. 11 Participants 3 -‐ 6 years old Jean Piaget • Sensorimotor Stage Birth – 2 • Preoperational Stage Ages 2 – 6 • Concrete Operational Stage: Ages 7 – 11 • Formal Operational Stage: Ages 12 – Adult

12. 12 Preoperational Stage: 2 – 6 years • Language development • Can’t understand logic • Can’t manipulate (much) informa2on • Difficulty to take the point of view of other people • Very jealous of their own ideas • Get impa2ent very easily

13. 13 Participants

14. 14 Participants October 2013 1 child aged 4 aMending Nursery 2 children aged 4 aMending Recep*on 2 children aged 5 aMending Recep*on 2 children aged 6 aMending Year 1

15. Participants 1 child aged 3 aMending Nursery 1 child aged 4 aMending Nursery 1 child aged 4 aMending Recep*on 1 child aged 5 aMending Recep*15 on March 2014

16. 16 Setting • Wear informal clothes • Adults at the same level of children • No hand raising • Use first names • All ideas/comments are good • There are not right and wrong answers

17. 17 Setting

18. 18 • Introduce yourself “…Hi! I’m Monica and this is Alex…” • Break the ice • Give them importance “…we have designed a new game to learn the letters and we need your help to understand if it works or not…would you like to help us please?...” “…but remember…the design is till “top secret”!...”

19. 19 No scenarios No specific task YES user journey YES observation! WHAT do they do? WHY? WHAT works? WHAT does not work? WHY?

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21. 21

22. 22 Colouring page

23. Sounding page 23

24. Blending page 24

25. 25 Segmen*ng page

26. 26 Apple game

27. 27 Observation – behavior • signs of engagement: • smiles • laughs • leaning forward to try things • signs of disengagement: • frowns • sighs • yawns • turning away from the computer

28. 28 Post task questionnaire • Would you play with the app again? Why? • What did you like the most? • What you didn’t like? • Did you have any surprise? • Was it easy to use or difficult? • Why?

29. “We need to keep trying this for 5 more minutes… then we can try something different.” “…let’s go and see the next page…maybe there is something new…maybe a surprise!” “Now I need you to…” “Let’s do this…” 29 Attention spam

30. 30 Rewards

31. 31 Rewards

32. 32 Lessons learned • Have clear goals in mind • Be organised • Short sessions • Be open minded! Take what you get! • Make the children feel important • Thank and reward the children • Thank and reward the school • Keep in touch with the children, school and parents for future collaborations

33. 33 They are users! People using the technology we design!

34. 34 NO little adults…but special people with their own specific mental model!

35. 35

36. 36 Why testing technology • Know with children more…they are the users! • Understand their prospec2ve • Brutally honest! • Can feel empowered (adults want to listen to them) • Look at things differently • Adults are experts in their own field – Children are expert in being children!

37. 37 “Whatever you’ve designed, you absolutely have to test with children because they’ll use it in ways you never expected.” -‐ Jackie Wolf of Ann Arbor, Mich. Reference: What Can Experience Designers Learn from Kids? UX MAGAZINE

38. 38 Coopera*ve Inquiry

39. Design for Kids 39

40. 40

41. Thank you! 41 @londrareale