Some days ago, I attended a get-together, where there were several (heavy) internet users telling anecdotes from their everyday digital life: an online activist, a blogger, an ex-hardcore gamer, a start-up guy and a 61 years old retired man. The latter made an interesting point: he said he doesn't understand why there isn't a lot more technology and user interfaces optimized for old people, a huge and profitable audience. Of course there are very simple and no-frills cellphones for the wrinkly, he argued, but they mostly don't notice since they inherit discarded pieces of old technology from their children or grandchildren.
So what does this have to do with Kids and User Interfaces? I'd like to think about some ideas related to designing target-oriented user interfaces for specific groups of people. Although it's mostly very complicated (or even impossible) to lump together people to treat and communicate them as separable target audiences, I think it's quite possible to do so with elderly people and kids. Of course, there is a high level of diversity just within the boundaries of "seniors" or "kids", but it works in a more general, mainly cognitive manner. Kids aren't as handy, mature and experienced; an elderly person is more likely to be visually or motor impaired.
When I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to watch TV until I was around 16 or 17. Which at that time made me very greedy for staring at a television or playing computer games when visiting friends. On the other hand, I today still feel awkward when in contact with a TV: I turn it on and watch whatever's currently running, for example. I'm not really able to channel-surf. In a positive sense, I have no television habits or addiction at all.
I'm thinking alot about what's the best way to handle these things for Tilda, my 3,5 year old daughter. And today, there are even more points of potential seduction – screens and digital media are pretty much everywhere, we're surrounded by more and more interaction and distraction and we need to adapt carefully. So no matter if you're having a lot of devices in your household or not, you have to develop a strategy. And I think the best way to go is a playful but very deliberate exposure to technology. There's some risks and a lot of great things, so you need to find a good balance for and together with your kids.
Of course Tilda was very curious when she first saw the iPad. Although she was already quite experienced with touch screens due to the iPhone (she managed to intuitively unlock it when she was around 2), this bigger and glossy apparatus fascinated her even more. I think it's in a way about the scale of the device, which compares much better to the real thing: people in movies appear a lot bigger, and the canvas of drawing apps feels quite similar to standard paper sizes. So when Tilda first picked a color to draw with, she had a look at her fingertip to make sure the screen didn't loose color.
But what I think would be a great field for kids usage of the iPad is not the passive consumption of films, radio play or music. It's rather things that stimulate creativity and invention. For smaller kids it starts with puzzles, simple cause and effect games, color and shape association. A next step could be drawing (do you remember your Magic Sketcher?), step by step leading to more advanced educational games and applications (reading, writing, making music, editing video, programming …).
Mobile or portable devices such as smartphones and tablet computers also show a great potential for a more social use of technology (who would take a laptop to a crib?). Where some parents stopped reading lullaby stories to their kids long time ago, just placing them in front of a screen, new forms of shared multimedia storytelling could arise, where parents read some bits, then there's some sounds and music, interactive elements and short movie clips. And why not even combining these new digital gadgets with classic material – e.g. an iPhone with a book?
Although there are plenty of iPad apps for kids in the education or games section of the iTunes store, I haven't found anything that truly convinced me yet (any kind of tip highly appreciated!). At this point, I'd like to share three observations I made during checking out some of these apps together with Tilda. They are less about the actual intention or purpose of these applications, but rather about more general kids interaction issues that popped up quite quickly.
Alice for the iPad Lite*: accidental page turns
Alice for the iPad has gotten a lot of attention from the press. It's basically a very well designed classic book, enhanced with some playful interactive features that engage you with the story by moving things around with your fingers or by tilting the device. But the problem is – at least that's what happened when Tilda was playing around with it: to go to the next/previous page, you have to swipe right/left. So there's a conflict with moving objects around the screen and a lot of accidental page turns – leading to regular frustration. I think in this case it would make much more sense to only use the arrow icons on the bottom for navigation (as shown in this movie – it seems they added the swiping in a later update).
* we only used the free light version, since it wouldn't make much sense to read the English version
Drawing Pad: no easy sharing option
After Tilda had finished her first masterpiece with Drawing Pad (the name of the app should be quite self-explanatory), she felt the urge to share it with her aunt and her grandparents. There are several options to export drawings: they can be saved or shared by Email, Facebook or Twitter. But all these things involve text and writing capabilities, so I was thinking: why isn't there a way for me to setup like 3-5 pictures of relevant family members, and whenever Tilda's finished with a new piece she can easily share it by just tapping on a face she knows?
General issue: irrelevant settings pages
We encountered this problem with Drawing App as well, but I think it's a general issue. Within many apps, settings pages that are not really relevant for a kid's usage, are mixed into their interaction flow. They open them by accident, don't know how to get rid again (an "X" icon is not learned in this case) and get lost or frustrated. I think this could be solved quite easily: it's not about hiding these buttons or icons, we (the parents) still need them for configuration purposes. But why not using multitouch gestures such as tapping with two or three fingers simultaneously? Hints would be easy to give, but if kids don't need them (or just cannot read), they won't really get in their way. I think this works quite well in the Atomic Web Browser for the iPad, where a 3-fingers-tap toggles between normal and fullscreen mode.
