Take Care: A Study on Usability Evaluation Methods for Children

Abstract

Nowadays whenever a user buys any gadget, apart from the price his focus would also be on how easy is the functionality of the gadget. This means users are more focussed towards the usability of the gadget. Usability of a system is defined as the easiness with which the user can use the system to perform the required tasks. Therefore, during the system development cycle, usability evaluation is performed. Usability evaluation involves testing a specific system by involving a population of the target users. The results of usability evaluations can be incorporated into the system design in order to make the system usable and likeable by the target users. Therefore, this study set to explore usability evaluations methods for children in order to analyze their roles in the development of technology. Usability evaluation methods which are successfully tested on the adults are investigated to find out how successfully they can also be applied to children. The results of the review indicate that usability evaluation with children is more challenging than with adults. Children display varying behaviours in varying environments. Therefore, usability evaluation with children is more about understanding the children’s psychological and behavioural aspects. Strong empirical base is needed to understand the children’s behaviour in different contexts and accordingly to choose the appropriate usability evaluation method. The study found that children’s logical thinking abilities are not fully developed, so depending on one type of usability evaluation method would not be an appropriate decision.

 

Keywords: usability evaluation methods; children; behaviour; behaviour setting theory; usability guidelines;