Middlesex University Theng, Y.L., Mohd Nasir, N., Thimbleby, H., Buchanan, G. & Jones, M.

1. Children as Design Partners & Testers for a Middlesex University Theng, Y.L., Mohd Nasir, N., Thimbleby, H., Buchanan, G. & Jones, M. University of WaikatoSt. Albans School Bainbridge, D. Cassidy, N.

2. Two observations 1. Many of today’s digital libraries are not designed for children. 2. DLs have not taken up in a “big” way compared to the web EuroDL'00

3. Objectives of the children’s DL for 11-14 years old Children have their own likes, dislikes, curiosities and needs that are different from adults. A. Engagement of children as design partners and testersto ensure that DL is designed with and for children. B. Engagement of children in a successful learning experience (in collaborative writing)to encourage active use of the DL. EuroDL'00

4. Objective 1: Engaging children as design partners for DL for 11-14 years old Pilot work - invited a class of 23 twelve years old at St.Albans’ School (U.K.) to be our design partners & English teacher EuroDL'00

5. Objective 1: Engaging children as design partners for DL for 11-14 years old Pilot work Profiles of children from St.Albans’ School - boys aged 11-12 years old - public school, competent computer & internet users Next stage - replicate this initial work with a girls’ school and a mixed school EuroDL'00

6. Objective 1: Engaging children as design partners Session 1 - introduced the concept of DLs to the children - explained our research project & objectives - children felt important invited to be design partners - 4 teams of 5 or 6 children formed - 2 weeks to brainstorm on design features - submitted before second session design ideas EuroDL'00

7. Objective 1: Engaging children as design partners Session 2 - took place 3 weeks after first session - started with children browsing the New Zealand School Journal to tease out children’s likes, dislikes, curiosities and needs - each team then presented the - list of design features children liked to be included in the collaborative writing environment was formed - three different interfaces to capture these design features (normal adult, library-like and game-like) design ideas EuroDL'00

8. Objective 2: Engaging children in the use of the digital library wanting digesting doing feedback Provide a successful learning experience (Ellington et. al, 1995) EuroDL'00

9. Objective 2: Engaging children in the use of the digital library Provide a dynamic DL collaborative writing environment empowering children as both readers authors & EuroDL'00

10. Objective 2: Engaging children in the use of the digital library reader features - query and browse other children’s stories and poems - display of ten 10 stories/poems author features - create and submit own stories - message box to post and discuss ideas - links to other related DLs, computer-based training packages, spell checker, dictionary, thesaurus, etc. EuroDL'00

11. Demo : Three different interface designs Prototype Interface Design 1 EuroDL'00

12. Objective 3: Engaging children as testers Session 3 -took place in February 2000 - three groups of six to eight children were formed - each group given a paper-based version of the three interface designs - each child wrote down 3 things he liked & 3 things he wished the interfaces would provide - all the children ranked in order of importance the design features considered crucial in the DL EuroDL'00

13. Objective 3: Engaging children as testers Likes of 11-14 years old: - Interface A: bright colours; good design/graphics; easy to use - Interface B (library metaphor) : colourful & interesting; very realistic; very easy to use because it’s like a normal library - Interface C: treasure map makes things easier to use Dislikes of 11-14 years old: -wanted interfaces to be “less babyish” and “more adult” - preferred interfaces that were fun and interesting to use as well as functional EuroDL'00

14. Objective 3: Engaging children as testers EuroDL'00

15. Objective 3: Engaging children as testers EuroDL'00

16. Objective 3: Engaging children as testers Summary - Congruent to other research findings with younger children, children prefer DLs that are fun to use, interesting and appealing. - Contrary to popular belief, unlike the younger children, this age group (11-14 years old) seemed to want the children’s DL to be: functional (useful, 47%) non-functional (usable, 53%). EuroDL'00

17. Conclusions & on-going work - this is on-going work, replicate work with a girls’ school and a mixed school - we hope the project will highlight useful insights and forge new directions for work with children and digital libraries - on-going work involves conducting one-to-one evaluation sessions with students, and fully implementing the three different interfaces - we hope to study the impact of DLs on education and vice versa, and we’ll be working with a couple of schools in U.K., New Zealand, the States, Singapore, etc. EuroDL'00

18. Acknowledgements - 23 children and English teacher, Noel Cassidy, at St.Albans’ School (U.K.) - University of Waikato for the use of the Greenstone software - colleagues at Middlesex University - EPSRC (U.K.) for funding this project EuroDL'00