ux cambridge 2014 - usability testing with young children

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Usability Testing with young children UX Cambridge 2014 Case study Monica Ferraro @londrareale

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Monica Ferraro User Experience Researcher City University London Playhows UXPA UK Secretary @londrareale @playhows @UXPAUK

About  me    

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•  Children – who are they? •  Case study – Jolly Phonics Letter

Sound App •  Lessons learned •  Importance of user

testing with children •  Resources

Overview    

Children  –  Who  are  they?    

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They  are  users!  

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NO  li<le  adults…but  special  people!    

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Children  -­‐  Who  are  they?      

Jean Piaget •  Sensorimotor Stage: Birth – 2

•  Preoperational Stage: Ages 2 – 6

• Concrete Operational Stage: Ages 7 – 11

•  Formal Operational Stage: Ages 12 - Adult        

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Children  -­‐  Who  are  they?      

Sensorimotor Stage: Birth – 2 years       •  Knowledge  of  world  is  limited  by  sensory  

percepAons  and  motor  acAviAes,  simple  motor  responses  

•  Looking,  grasping,  sucking    

•  Towards  18-­‐24  months  children  begin  to  understand  the  world  through  mental  operaAons  rather  than  purely  through  acDons  

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Children  -­‐  Who  are  they?      

Preoperational Stage: 2 – 7 years       •  Language  development  

•  Can’t  understand  logic,  cannot  mentally  manipulate  (much)  informaDon  

•  Difficulty  to  take  the  point  of  view  of  other  people  

•  Increased  play  and  pretending  “ConservaDon”  

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Children  -­‐  Who  are  they?      

Concrete Operational Stage: 7 – 11 years       •  BeQer  understanding  of  mental  operaAons  

•  Begin  thinking  logically  about  concrete  events,  but  have  difficulty  understanding  abstract  or  hypotheAcal  concepts  

•  Youngest  have  difficulDes  to  think  aloud  

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Children  -­‐  Who  are  they?      

Formal Operational Stage: 12 - adults      

•  Develop  the  ability  to  think  about  abstract  concepts  

•  Develop  skills  such  as  logical  thought,  deducAve  reasoning,  and  systemaAc  planning  

•  Confortable  on  carrying  out  tasks  •  Can  be  more  technologically  savvy  than  most  adults  

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Case  Study      

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Phonics      

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Le<er  sounds  and  digraphs      

•  42  le<er  sounds  

•  Diagraphs:                combinaDon  of  leQers      

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User  tesAng  goals        

• Understand  how  children  of  different  age  (3  -­‐  6  years  old)  engage  with  the  app  

•  Find  any  key  difficulAes  experienced    

•  Find  key  areas  for  improvement    

• What  parts  are  confusing?    

• What  parts  do  children  like?  • Where  are  the  bugs?  

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ParAcipants  Recruitment        

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How  many  parAcipants        

1  child  aged  4  a<ending  Nursery  2  children  aged  4  a<ending  RecepAon  2  children  aged  5  a<ending  RecepAon  2  children  aged  6  a<ending  Year  1    

October 2013

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How  many  parAcipants        

1  child  aged  3  a<ending  Nursery  1  child  aged  4  a<ending  Nursery  1  child  aged  4  a<ending  RecepAon  1  child  aged  5  a<ending  RecepAon    

March 2014

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Ethics  -­‐  DBS        

http://www.gov.uk/disclosure-barring-service-check/overview

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Ethics  –  InformaAon  sheet        

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Ethics  –  Consent  form  

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Se]ngs        

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Se]ngs        

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Se]ngs        

“…Kids say the darndest things: they just need to be confortable enough

to open up!” - Bill Cosby

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Se]ngs        

•  Introduce yourself “…Hi! I’m Monica and this is Alex…”

•  Breaking 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”!...”

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What  they  tested        

No scenarios No specific task

YES user journey YES observation!

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What  they  tested        

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

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What  they  tested      

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What  they  tested      

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What  they  tested  Colouring  page  

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What  they  tested  Sounding  page  

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What  they  tested  Blending  page  

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What  they  tested  SegmenAng  page  

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What  they  tested  

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What  they  tested        

Observation – behavior

•  signs  of  engagement:  smiles,  laughs  or  leaning  forward  to  try  things  

 •  signs  of  disengagement:  frowns,  sighs,  

yawns,  or  turning  away  from  the  computer    

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What  they  tested        

Post task questionnaire •  Did  you  like  the  app?  • What  did  you  like  the  most?  • What  you  didn’t  like?  •  Did  you  have  any  surprise?  • What  is  easy  or  difficult?  • Why?    

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A<enAon  span        

“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…”  

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IncenAves        

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IncenAves        

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Lessons  learned    

• Have clear goals in mind • Be organised • Be open minded! • 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 • Better testing with only the children and no parents or teacher around  

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Why  tesAng  with  children    

•  Brutally honest! •  Can feel empowered (adults want to listen to them)

•  Know more

•  Look at things differently •  Adults are experts in their own field – Children are expert in being children!!!

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Why  tesAng  with  children    

“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.

What Can Experience Designers Learn from Kids? UX MAGAZINE

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Why  it  is  important    

•  Educators •  More usable technologies for teaching

•  Parents •  Better technologies for informal learning

•  Children •  Technologies that they want to use, rather ignore or be frustrated by them

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Resources    

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Resources    

Design  for  Kids  

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Resources    

Thank you! Questions?

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@londrareale