This document provides an overview of a presentation on design recommendations for children's apps on smart phones and tablets. The presentation covers background information on touchscreen devices for under 6s, research methods and objectives, recruitment of participants, materials used in the research, and top findings and recommendations. Key recommendations include ensuring challenges are age appropriate, combining instructions, allowing opportunities to succeed, and incorporating a variety of touch gestures.

1. Design recommendations
for children’s apps on smart phones
& tablets
August/September 2011
Angela Collins-Rees & Sylwia Frankowska-Takhari

2. Summary
This talk discusses the findings from a piece of research
around children’s usage of touch-screen devices.
The attendees will gain practical recommendations for designing
applications for touch screen devices.
Case studies: Cbeebies & CBBC
Duration: about 60 minutes

3. Overview
1. Background Information
2. Methods & Objectives
3. Recruitment
4. Research Materials
5. Top Findings & Recommendations

4. Background Information
• Touch-screen devices & the under 6’s
• Appetite for more focused research at the BBC

5. Methods and Objectives
Objectives
• To investigate how the existing young users use ‘their’ touch screen
devices & how the non-users embrace the new experience
• To investigate what navigation mechanisms make their experiences
with touch screen devices enjoyable and the ones that are problematic
• To inspire development of applications for touch screen devices that would
support children’s natural desire to independently explore content regardless
of their age and skills
Methods
• Depth interviews with parents
• Drawing activity & taking photos
• Observation
Research environment
• Home visits

6. Recruitment
Participants’ profiles
• Children & parents
.
Familiarity with touch-screen devices & apps
• Users vs. non-users
Skills
• Computer skills
• Literacy and numeracy

7. Research Materials
iPhone Apps
• Dress up with Angelina Ballerina
• Angry birds
• Cooking mama
• Match10
iPad Apps
• Angelina Ballerina
• Angry birds
• Cupcake maker
• Cut the rope
• Glow hockey
• Sonic racing
Criteria for selecting the applications
• Participants’ age, gender and currently used apps
• Basic touch screen gestures

8. Top Findings & Recommendations
Be aware of how parents’ attitudes may influence their
children’s skills and interests; remember
to include parents’ profiles in the recruitment brief for any
future research.

9. Top Findings & Recommendations
Ensure that challenges within apps are appropriate to age,
interest and skills. You can achieve this by offering a basic
linear route for everybody as well as the opportunity for
a free-roam experience for the more confident users.
This will maximise engagement and opportunity
for exploration.

10. Top Findings & Recommendations
Where possible, consider combining different types of
instructions e.g. animation with voice-overs, to enable all
children to engage with the activities independently.

11. Top Findings & Recommendations
Create opportunities to succeed for all users regardless
of their skills by allowing the ability to ‘Play again’ or skip
through to next option. Where possible, consider
incorporating a range of levels that target different skill sets
or offering practice sessions.

12. Top Findings & Recommendations
Implement positive encouragers e.g. a smiley face,
stars, thumbs up as well as positive language e.g.
‘Try Again’ rather than ‘You’ve Failed’.

13. Top Findings & Recommendations
Within an activity, incorporate a variety
of touch screen gestures to maintain engagement and
minimise fatigue.

14. Top Findings & Recommendations
Consider creating apps that allow children to include user
generated content such as photos and clips to enhance
the sense of ownership and engagement.

15. Top Findings & Recommendations
When designing an app that mimics an activity such as
following a recipe, ensure it reflects the logical real-life
steps as this increases learning through play.

16. Top Findings & Recommendations
If you want to appeal to both genders, use neutral colours
e.g. green, yellow or ones which do not have such strong
associations with gender like e.g. blue and pink.

17. Top Findings & Recommendations
When building a collaborative activity for parent
and child, keep the balance between guidance and equal
participation.

18. Top Findings & Recommendations
Consider the notion of a walled garden approach whereby
a safe area is created.
App collections and playlists within apps may offer a solution
for ensuring online safety.

19. Thank you!
If you are interested in this talk, please contact us at:
uxresearchers@gmail.com
Or else, see other talks in this series on the next slides

20. Other talks
Designing apps for children: findings & recommendations
Summary: This talk provides practical advice around recruitment of child
participants with a particular focus on ethics and the researchers’ ethical
responsibility for participants.
The attendees will gain practical tips on how to effectively recruit child
participants for their projects and set up a safe research environment
throughout the research sessions.
Methods for design research
Summary: This talk presents an overview of the variety of methods &
tools available to design researchers, both the more traditional ones and
those that are more innovative, with a focus on 2 selected methods
illustrated with case studies.
The attendees will learn when it’s appropriate to use each
of the methods in the product life cycle, what the potential challenges
can be and how to overcome them by e.g. triangulating methods.
All this illustrated with case studies and examples of interesting projects
from across the BBC.

21. Other talks
Inclusive design & recruitment
Summary: This talk with elements of experiential workshop gives
an overview of different target audiences of a product, and their particular
needs and expectations.
The attendees will learn why it is important to include people with different
needs in the research and what to consider when recruiting child
participants and participants with disabilities for research in terms
of recruitment criteria, ethics and logistics.
Design research in product life cycle
Summary: This talk focuses mainly on the phases
of product life cycle: idea generation, growth and maturity and explains
how design research supports designers in each phase.
The attendees will learn about the phases of a product life cycle and what
research methods to use in each phase e.g.: formative vs. summative
research methods.

22. Other talks
Design researchers’ skills/ competences
Summary: This talk gives an overview of the role of Design Researchers.
The attendees will learn about the key responsibilities of Design Researchers,
how their jobs fit into the design industry, and what are the essential skills
and competences required for the role.
Risks related to using inappropriate methodology & recruitment
Summary: This talk discusses how using inappropriate research methods
and tools can skew the research results and negatively affect the design work.
The attendees will learn about the consequences of using inappropriate
research methods, risks related to methods such as: guerrilla study or crowd-
sourcing, and how to minimise those risks.