Little Hands, Foul Moods,
and Runny Noses:
The Research You Should
Know When Making
Games for Kids
Carla C.E. Fisher
playinvestigator.com
[email protected]
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Structure
• Focus on newer
input devices
•
Motion, Balance,
Touch Screen
• Guiding questions
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Developmental milestones?
Existing research?
Missing research?
Methods to perform research?
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Testing and research is
critical because
•
•
Parents and teachers can’t answer all
of your questions, especially related
to usability
We’re far removed from
developmental experiences of
childhood
©©
2009
Carla
C.E.
Fisher
2009
Carla
C.E.
Fisher
Mouse paths – adults
Source: http://hcil.cs.umd.edu/trs/2003-16/2003-16.html
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Mouse paths – 5-year-olds
Source: http://hcil.cs.umd.edu/trs/2003-16/2003-16.html
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Mouse paths – 4-year-olds
Source: http://hcil.cs.umd.edu/trs/2003-16/2003-16.html
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Testing and research is
critical
Children have cognitive and
physical limits that adults have
long ago mastered.
•
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Without testing, we’re developing in
a vacuum.
Academic resources can inform
kids' game design
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•
Knowledge of research findings can
help avoid reinventing the wheel
Reduce the cost and time of testing
©©
2009
2009
Carla
Carla
C.E.
C.E.
Fisher
Fisher
Example Resources
• Journal of Children and Media
• ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
Database
• IDC (Interaction Design for Children)
Conference
• Video sharing sites, such as YouTube
• Examples of children & conference
presentations
• PBS Parents Child Development Tracker
(pbs.org/parents/childdevelopment)
• Child Development 101 for the Developers
of Interactive Media (Wolock, Orr, &
Buckleitner)
©©
2009
2009
Carla
Carla
C.E.
C.E.
Fisher
Fisher
Developmental
Milestones
• Guidelines, not absolutes
• Also affected by culture, genetics,
cognitive development, instruction,
environment, etc.
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget’s Stages of Development
• Sensorimotor (to 2½)
• Learn through repetition, direct manipulation
• Understand simple cause and effect
• Preoperational Stage (2½ to 7)
• Egocentric
• Very literal
• Concrete-Operational Stage (7 to 12)
• Understanding changing of an object
• Basis of scientific exploration and thought but
“still rely on concrete objects and
experiments to form ideas”
• Understand time, space, and numbers
• Understand another person’s perspective
Cognitive Development
Piaget’s Stages
• Sensorimotor (to 2½)
• Preoperational Stage (2½ to 7)
• Concrete-Operational Stage (7 to 12)
• Formal Operational Stage (12+)
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Use of abstract logic
Verbal reasoning
Understand symbols and complex concepts
Egocentrism may disappear
Sense of fairness and equality supersedes
adult authority
Motor Skills
Fine Motor
Skills
Gross Motor
Skills
Muscles
Small
Large
Example actions
Writing, grasping
Walking,
coordination,
balance
Input Devices
Touch screens,
computer mouse,
traditional
console
controllers
Accelerometerbased input,
balance boards,
dance mats
©©
2009
Carla
C.E.
Fisher
2009
Carla
C.E.
Fisher
Motor Development
• Motor development moves from the
inner core to the outer limbs (i.e. trunk
> shoulder > arm > wrist > hand)
• Practice is important in development
(20% of 9-year old children do not
develop kicking or throwing skills)
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Motor Development
• 13-18 months
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Pincer grip to pick up objects, which
provides sensory information
90% of children can walk well by 14.3
months
Begin to walk sideways, backward
Walk up and down stairs with help
http://thewritestart.typepad.com/
the_write_start/images/2008/05/
12/img_3217.jpg
©©
2009
Carla
C.E.
Fisher
2009
Carla
C.E.
Fisher
Motor Development
• 19-24 months
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Jumping, running, climbing
By 24 months, 90% of children are
able to kick a ball forward
©©
2009
Carla
C.E.
Fisher
2009
Carla
C.E.
Fisher
Motor Development
• 2-3 years old
•
Manual dexterity improves
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Can turn a page without tearing
•
Hold cup of liquid without spilling
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Build a tower of about 6 blocks high
•
Assemble jigsaw puzzles (but might be
rough and inaccurate)
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Motor Development
• 2-3 years old
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Manual dexterity improves
Walk backward, stoop, squat, and
toss and roll large balls
Immense pride in demonstrating
jumping and running skills
Other milestones
•
Match primary shapes and colors
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Enjoy make believe play
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Learn through repetition, experimentation
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Understand simple cause and effect
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Motor Development
• 4-5 years old
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Use eating utensils regularly
Cut on a line with scissors
Walk in a straight line
Hop on one foot (short periods)
Summersault
Other milestones
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Take turns
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Enjoy physical humor
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Egocentric; very literal
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Basic understanding of time
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Motor Development
• 6-7 years old
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Tie shoelaces
Skilled with scissors
Handwriting stabilizes
Ride a bicycle with training wheels
Skip with alternating feet, jump rope
Other milestones
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Increasing attention span
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Still struggle to understand another
person’s point of view
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Tendency to play with same gender
playmates
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Motor Development
• 7-8 years old
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Catch small balls
Develop better manipulative skills
Develop good sense of balance
• 9+
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Focus is on refining skills
Develop abstract thinking
9-12 y.o. girls still prefer traditional
toys but are increasingly using games
that involve socializing (NPD, 2008)
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Input Device Comparisons
• Stylus and touch-screens are better
choice
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Light pen, touch screen, mouse, trackball,
joystick, then arrows (e.g., Revelle, Medoff, &
Strommen, 2001)
•
Touch screen better and quicker than mouse (Lu &
Frye, 1992)
• Cognitively, stylus and touch may be
more accessible because of direct
mapping (e.g. Chiasson & Gutwin, n.d.)
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Stylus and Fingers
Kids’ Drawing Skills
• Development of drawing skills
(Baker & Kellogg, 1967)
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1 year old: Random marks on paper
2 year old: Kellogg’s 20 Basic
Scribbles
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Kellogg’s 20 Basic
Scribbles,
From Golomb, 2004
Kids’ Drawing Skills
• Development of drawing skills
(Baker & Kellogg, 1967)
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1 year old: Random marks on paper
2 year old: Kellogg’s 20 Basic
Scribbles
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Then makes combinations of scribbles
3 year old: Outlines and shapes based
on scribbles, including circle, oval,
square, triangle
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Then makes combinations
of the shapes
“Tadpole” human – circle
and line (Damon et al, 2006)
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Kids’ Drawing Skills
• Development of drawing skills
(Baker & Kellogg, 1967)
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4 year old: Begins to use scribbles
and shapes to make representations
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Usually humans then flowers, animals,
boats, houses, and vehicles
6 year old: Uses lines to draw ground
and sky around other objects (Anning,
2004)
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Kids’ Drawing Skills
• Simplified view of Kellogg's 20 by
Golomb (2004)
•
Loops and scribbles followed by
parallel lines
• Games = consider what
motions/shapes asking children to
draw on the screen
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Fingers and Games
• Whole hand use = potential screen
obstruction
• Multiple fingers = errors and
inaccuracy for touch screens (e.g. Lu
& Frye, 1992)
• Children use their fingers and
stylus interchangeably and neither
are very accurate (Bryant, Akerman, &
Drell, 2008)
• Hand switching = interface design
challenges
•
Dominant hand isn’t steady until 5-6
Kids and Drawing Tools
• Developmentally, stylus is similar
to holding a pencil
• Pencil grip develops until children
are approx. 10.5 y.o. (Schneck,
1990)
• Factors affecting grip choice and
development
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Age
Task (and power required)
Gender (controversial)
Tool (i.e. pencil vs. crayon)
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Kids and Drawing Tools
• 10 grips used by children ages 3 to
7 on crayon and pencil drawing
tasks (Schneck & Henderson,
1990)
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Kids and Drawing Tools
• Games = variety of grips cause
programming challenges for angle
and pressure
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Interaction Considerations
• Point-and-click-style interfaces with
computer quicker and fewer errors than
drag-and-drop interfaces (Inkpen, Booth, &
Klawe, 1996; Inkpen, 2001)
• Drag and drop can obscure interface with
stylus and touch.
• onTouch versus onLift
• Touch screens seem to require onPress
programming rather than onLift
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Motion-based interactions
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Motion-based interactions
• What are the considerations?
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Gross motor skills
Balance
Endurance
Physical size/controller ratio
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Balance
• Refined well into adulthood
• Boys tend to develop postural
stability faster than girls (Riach &
Hayes, 1986)
• Children fidget, which affects
force-plate balance measurements
(Wolff, et al., 1998)
• Fidget = noise in
accelerometry data
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Balance
• 7-8 y.o.: Develop good sense of
balance
•
Begin to rely more on sensory output
for balance and posture information
instead of on vision alone (Sparto, et al.,
2005)
• Some evidence that children as young as 3
can sometimes ignore misleading visual
information (Foudriat, et al., 1993)
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Endurance
• Endurance
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Length of time for holding arm aloft for
pointing tasks (Bryant, et al., 2008)
Recommended minimum physical
activity levels per day for children:
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Toddlers: 90 minutes (30 structure, 60 free)
Preschool: 2 hours (half structured, half free)
School age: 1+ hours (broken into 15+
minute chunks)
• Games = opportunities to increase
activity levels
•
But be careful with pacing and game
structure
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Size/Controller Ratios
• Physical size/controller ratio
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Methods
• Task comparison studies
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Compare reaction times and accuracy
Use multiple trials with each child
Sample sizes
Source: http://hcil.cs.umd.edu/trs/2003-16/2003-16.html
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Methods
• Data tracking
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Compare reaction times and accuracy
Long term information, but may need
to be creative with wifi, etc.
Triangulation
Creative
visualization
(i.e. heat maps)
Incorporate data
tracking from
the start
http://www.bungie.net/online/HeatMaps.aspx
Methods
• Observations
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In home or in laboratory?
YouTube for really casual, initial
findings
Summary
• Know your target audience's
abilities, challenges, and goals
(even if they don't)
• Plan for a wide range of abilities
both across the audience and
within each individual user
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Zone of Proximal Development
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Create a situation that forces the learner
to operate on the edge of their abilities, so
tasks are difficult but not unattainable
Advances in AI potentially allows for
addressing multiple kinds of abilities
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Considerations
Stylus and touch screen hold a lot of
promise
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Fingers and stylus are basically
interchangeable
Impact of whole hand use and
switching hands
Multiple fingers touching the screen
Stylus grips vary both within and
across users
Drawing skills begin with loops and
moves on to lines
© 2009 Carla C.E. Fisher
Considerations
Physical motion interfaces and input
devices are popular
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Motor skills vary widely
Fidgeting may lead to extra noise in
data
Balance isn’t steady until 7-8 y.o.
Young children generally rely on
visual information for balance
Appropriate length of play to allow
for breaks and avoid injury
Young children using adult
controllers = size issues
Rhythm and pitch activities are
popular but skills are very limited
Thank you!
• Questions?
• [email protected]
• Slides at playinvestigator.com
©©
2009
Carla
C.E.
Fisher
2009
Carla
C.E.
Fisher