Understanding the Human-Computer Interface Requirements in Developing Applications for Children

Abstract

The impact of technology on children is said to be very crucial in this era, so every single issues are needed to take into consideration on designing an interactive layout of design for children. This research focuses on understanding the design needed for children’s applications in terms of perception, memory, symbolic representation, problem solving and language. The definition of children used in this research is broad rather than narrow, it can include toddlers and teenagers but the core work of this survey focuses on children in primary schools. However, children at preoperational stage which are at the age of 2 to7 are the main target for this research. A simple testing process was conducted with children in order to understand the current situation related to interactive design on mobile software applications. This research concludes by congesting all the guidelines relating to interactive design and human computer interaction on children, extract the methods testing which are conducted with children and come out with recommendations to improve the current design for children’s mobile software applications.

Keywords: Children & HCI, Software Requirements, Interactive design