Sports Sites for children

1. Sports Sites for children Aslin Harminah Binte Anuar So Jami Florence Tey Hwee Chen

2. Introduction • Introduction • Theories on Child Development • Children Behaviour In Relation to Computers • Sports Websites for Children • Designing Children’s Interfaces • Usability Issues in Designing Children’s Webites • Recommendations • Conclusion

3. Introduction • Sports are essential to a child’s social and physical development. • Numerous sport sites available that cater to the different user needs. • Provide information, includes tips on how to engage in the sport and rules. • For these sites to be used effectively there is a need for the sites to be designed with the children in mind.

4. Introduction • A need to recognize the characteristics and unique needs of children. • Different learning styles. • Match the learning capabilities of the children being targeted. • Older children between the ages of 10 and 12. • Baseball sites in particular.

5. Introduction • Characteristics of children and child development • Guidelines and usability issues • Recommendations • Objectives: • Arouse interest in the sports • Learn the rules and regulations of the sports • Acquire the theoretical aspect of skills necessary to play the sports • Keep updated on the news and events related to the sports

6. Designing children’s interfaces • Take into user’s perspectives • Builds upon principles of good web design • Cannot be based on a single theory – children are not a homogenous group • Skills and preferences must be consideredin relation to technology

7. Heather Nam (2010) – designing user experiences for children

8. Heather Nam (2010) – designing user experiences for children

9. A baseball website http://www.exploratorium.edu/baseball/ • Suitable for 10 to 12 years old • Simple yet attractive • Comic-style graphics • Easy navigation

10. Designing multi-media environments for children Hanna, Czerwinski and Alexander (1999)

11. Baseball website

12. Baseball website http://funschool.kaboose.com/fun-blaster/baseball/index.html

13. An evaluation- tradeoff • Abundant use of images and games – slows the system • Children can be impatient • Tradeoff must be considered • Provide a status bar showing progress of loading

14. Usability issues in designing children’s website • Age Appropriate Format and Design • Can be difficult • Need to target a narrow age group • Cost • Different Skill Levels with Same Age-Group • Difficult to differentiate • Difference in skill levels even within each age group

15. Usability issues in designing children’s website • Design Issues • Cramped • Poor Utilisation of Space • Learned Path Bias • Children tend to use ways • Familiarity transferred from one website to another– sets some expection!

16. Recommendations – Age Appropriate format and Design & Learned Path Bias • Including children as equal partners in designing. • Testing out the prototypes and also be informants • Share ideas, opinions and discussion groups • Better sources of information. • Multiple formats for different age groups can be created with feedback.

17. Recommendations - Different Skill Levels with Same Age-Group • Interactive ‘help’ function. • Offering chat rooms and discussion groups or customizing the site. • Control the issue of ‘one size does not fit all’.

18. Recommendations – Design Issues • Include interactive concept maps. • Brief tutorial of how navigation around the website is done • Presenting instructions in a clear format.

19. References • Demner, D. (2010). Children on the Internet. Retrieved March 2010, from http://otal.umd.edu/uupractice/children. Last Accessed: 23rd September 2011. • Druin, A., Bederson, B., Boltman, A., Miura, A., Knotts-Callahan, D. & Platt, M. (1999). Children as Our Technology Design Partners. In: Druin, A., (Ed.), The Design of Children’s Technology, (Pp. 51–72). San Francisco: Morgan-Kaufman. • Guha, M., Druin, A., Chipman, G., Fails, J., Simms, S., & Farber, A. (2005). Working with Young Children as TECHNOLOGY DESIGN PARTNERS. Communications of the ACM, 48(1), 39-42. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. • Hanna, Libby, Kristen Risden, Mary Czerwinski, and Kristen J. Alexander (1999). “Role of Usability Research in Designing Children.” Retrived from web on 4 Oct 2011. <http://research.microsoft.com/enus/um/people/marycz/druin98.htm>. • Heather Nam (2010). Designing User Experiences for Children. Retrieved 8 September 2010 from http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2010/05/designing-user-experiences-for-children.php. • Markopoulos, P., Bekker, M. (2003). Interaction design and children. Interacting with Computers 15 Pg 141 – 149. • Neilsen, J. (2010) Children’s Websites: Usability Issues in Designing for Kids. Retrieved 21 September 2011 from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/children.html.

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