ucd14 talk - monica ferraro - usability testing with young children
TRANSCRIPT
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Monica Ferraro UXPA UK Secretary User Experience Researcher Freelancer @londrareale @UXPAUK
About me
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• Understand how children of different age (3 -‐ 6 years old) engage with the app
• Iden*fy any design problems
• Find any key difficul*es experienced
• Find key areas for improvement
• What parts are confusing?
• What parts do children like? • Where are the bugs?
Goals
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Jean Piaget • Sensorimotor Stage Birth – 2
• Preoperational Stage Ages 2 – 6
• Concrete Operational Stage: Ages 7 – 11
• Formal Operational Stage: Ages 12 – Adult
Participants 3 -‐ 6 years old
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• Language development • Can’t understand logic • Can’t manipulate (much)
informa2on • Difficulty to take the point
of view of other people • Very jealous of their own
ideas • Get impa2ent very easily
Preoperational Stage: 2 – 6 years
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1 child aged 4 aMending Nursery 2 children aged 4 aMending Recep*on 2 children aged 5 aMending Recep*on 2 children aged 6 aMending Year 1
October 2013
Participants
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1 child aged 3 aMending Nursery 1 child aged 4 aMending Nursery 1 child aged 4 aMending Recep*on 1 child aged 5 aMending Recep*on
March 2014
Participants
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Setting • Wear informal clothes • Adults at the same level of children • No hand raising • Use first names • All ideas/comments are good • There are not right and wrong answers
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• Introduce yourself “…Hi! I’m Monica and this is Alex…”
• Break the ice
• Give them importance “…we have designed a new game to learn the letters and we need your help to understand if it works or not…would you like to help us please?...”
“…but remember…the design is till “top secret”!...”
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No scenarios No specific task
YES user journey YES observation! WHAT do they do? WHY? WHAT works? WHAT does not work? WHY?
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Observation – behavior
• signs of engagement: • smiles • laughs • leaning forward to try things
• signs of disengagement: • frowns • sighs • yawns • turning away from the computer
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• Would you play with the app again? Why?
• What did you like the most? • What you didn’t like? • Did you have any surprise? • Was it easy to use or difficult? • Why?
Post task questionnaire
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“We need to keep trying this for 5 more minutes…then we can try something different.”
“…let’s go and see the next page…maybe there is something new…maybe a surprise!” “Now I need you to…” “Let’s do this…”
Attention spam
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• Have clear goals in mind • Be organised • Short sessions • Be open minded! Take what you get! • Make the children feel important • Thank and reward the children • Thank and reward the school • Keep in touch with the children, school and parents for future collaborations
Lessons learned
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• Know more…they are the users! • Understand their prospec2ve • Brutally honest! • Can feel empowered (adults want to listen to them) • Look at things differently • Adults are experts in their own field – Children are expert in being children!
Why testing technology with children
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“Whatever you’ve designed, you absolutely have to test with children
because they’ll use it in ways you never expected.”
-‐ Jackie Wolf of Ann Arbor, Mich.
Reference: What Can Experience Designers Learn from Kids? UX MAGAZINE