Evaluating Children's Interactive Products

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

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

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

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.