Evaluating Children's Interactive Products

PART 1 CHILDREN AND TECHNOLOGY

1 WHAT IS A CHILD
Age and Children
Learning about Children
Theories of Child Development
Perspectives on Child Development
Typical Stages of Development
Child Development and the Evaluation of Interactive Products
The Temperament of Children
Reducing the Effects of Temperament
Conclusion
Further Reading

2 CHILDREN AND INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY
Interactive Products
Interactive Products for Children
How Children Use Interactive Products
How Good Is Interactive Technology for Children?
Gender and Technology
Summary
Further Reading

3 THE INTERACTIVE PRODUCT LIFECYCLE
Interaction Design and Evaluation
The Product Lifecycle
Using Prototypes in Evaluation
Involving Children in Design and Evaluation
Further Reading

PART 2 EVALUATING WITH AND FOR CHILDREN

4 ETHICAL PRACTICE IN EVALUATIONS
Ethical Principles, Approaches, and Codes
Safety and Risk Assessment
Consent
Inducements for Taking Part
Ethical Selection of Participants
Privacy
Getting Advice and Permission
Further Reading

5 PLANNING THE EVALUATION STUDY
Defining the Purpose of the Evaluation
Evaluation Criteria
Choosing Evaluation Methods
Reliability of Evaluation Results
Field versus Lab: More than Just a Location!
The Evaluation Plan—Why Make One?
Summary
Further Reading

6 BEFORE THE EVALUATION
Deciding on People and Places
Preparing Technology and Evaluation Instruments
Planning the Day
Training Evaluators and Pilot-Testing
Communicating the Detail
Next Stages

7 DURING THE EVALUATION
Arrival and Setup
Introductions and Instructions
Managing Time and Space
Dealing with Problems on the Day
Closing the Evaluation

8 AFTER THE EVALUATION
Getting the Data into Shape
Coding and Analyzing the Data
Reporting Results
Care of Data
Reflecting on the Process

PART 3 METHODS OF EVALUATION

9 RECORDING AND LOGGING
Automated Logging
Video and Audio
Gaze-Tracking
Summary
Further Reading

10 OBSERVATION METHODS
Types of Observations
Structured Observation
Using Standard Coding Schemes
Summary

11 VERBALIZATION METHODS
Types of Verbalization Methods
Dialogue between the Administrator and the Testers
Interaction between Testers
Methodological Issues and Verbalization Methods
Performance of Verbalization Methods
Summary
Further Reading

12 THE WIZARD OF OZ METHOD
Wizard of Oz Studies
A Walkthrough of a Wizard of Oz Evaluation
Stages in Planning a Wizard of Oz Study
Problems
Summary
Further Reading

13 SURVEY METHODS
What Is a Survey?
Designing a Survey
Designing the Questions
Carrying Out the Survey
The Fun Toolkit
Summary
Further Reading

14 DIARIES
Field Evaluation
Using Diaries to Evaluate Interactive Products with Children
The Parent Evaluator Method
Summary
Further Reading

15 INSPECTION METHODS
Heuristic Evaluation
The SEEM Method
Persona-Based Evaluation
How Good Are Inspection Methods?
Summary
Further Reading

PART 4 CASE STUDIES

16 CASE STUDY 1: GAME-CONTROLLING GESTURES IN
INTERACTIVE GAMES
Finding a Suitable Evaluation Method
The Study
Procedure
Children’s Movement Analysis
Results from the Study
Commentary on the Case Study
Summary

17 CASE STUDY 2: EMBEDDING EVALUATION IN THE
DESIGN OF A PERVASIVE GAME CONCEPT
The Design Project Context
Children and the Design of Camelot
The Mission from Mars Method
Paper Prototypes with Observations and Picture Cards Interviews
Evaluating Interaction Styles with Peer Tutoring
Play Testing of Camelot
Summary

18 CASE STUDY 3: USING SURVEY METHODS AND EFFICIENCY METRICS
The Study
Results from the Study
Summary

Evaluating Children's Interactive Products directly addresses the need to ensure that interactive products designed for children — whether toys, games, educational products, or websites — are safe, effective, and entertaining. It presents an essential background in child development and child psychology, particularly as they relate to technology; captures best practices for observing and surveying children, training evaluators, and capturing the child user experience using audio and visual technology; and examines ethical and legal issues involved in working with children and offers guidelines for effective risk management.

Based on the authors' workshops, conference courses, and own design experience and research, this highly practical book reads like a handbook, while being thoroughly grounded in the latest research. Throughout, the authors illustrate techniques and principles with numerous mini case studies and highlight practical information in tips and exercises and conclude with three in-depth case studies.

This book is recommended for usability experts, product developers, and researchers in the field.

• Presents an essential background in child development and child psychology, particularly as they relate to technology.
  
  * Captures best practices for observing and surveying children, training evaluators, and capturing the child user experience using audio and visual technology.
  
  * Examines ethical and legal issues involved in working with children and offers guidelines for effective risk management.

Professionals and students who are working on the design of a product whose intended audience is children. This market includes usability experts, product developers of web sites, software--whether games or educational or both--and researchers who are building or evaluating products in the lab for R&D or prototype/projects.

Three of the four authors are academics and teach courses on this, and one school, the University of Central Lancashire has a degree program in this area. So there are some limited opportunities for adoptions but there are some.