Children in the information technology design process: A review of theories and their applications <s> Usability studies and children <s> A flexible pipe joint comprising a cylindrical tie member for tieing the ends of pipes together and a flexible envelope for fluid flow conduction between the pipes. The tie member comprises a plurality of annular series of parallel tie bars arranged co-axially and there is adjustable mounting means for the tie member in the envelope for enabling the tie member to accommodate misalignment of the pipes on installation. Further misalignment produced by thermal expansion of the pipes is accommodated by the tie member by uniform flexing of the tie bars. <s> BIB001 </s> Children in the information technology design process: A review of theories and their applications <s> Usability studies and children <s> In todays homes and schools, children are emerging as frequentand experienced users of technology [3, 14]. As this trendcontinues, it becomes increasingly important to ask if we arefulfilling the technology needs of our children. To answer thisquestion, I have developed a research approach that enables youngchildren to have a voice throughout the technology developmentprocess. In this paper, the techniques of cooperativeinquiry will be described along with a theoretical frameworkthat situates this work in the HCI literature. Two examples oftechnology resulting from this approach will be presented, alongwith a brief discussion on the design-centered learning ofteam researchers using cooperative inquiry. <s> BIB002 </s> Children in the information technology design process: A review of theories and their applications <s> Usability studies and children <s> This paper suggests a framework for understanding the roles that children can play in the technology design process, particularly in regards to designing technologies that support learning. Each role, user, tester, informant and design partner has been defined based upon a review of the literature and the author's own laboratory research experiences. This discussion does not suggest that any one role is appropriate for all research or development needs. Instead, by understanding this framework the reader may be able to make more informed decisions about the design processes they choose to use with children in creating new technologies. This paper will present for each role a historical overview, research and development methods, as well as the strengths, challenges and unique contributions associated with children in the design process. <s> BIB003 </s> Children in the information technology design process: A review of theories and their applications <s> Usability studies and children <s> Preface. 1. Introduction: Why Web Usability? 2. Page Design. 3. Content Design. 4. Site Design. 5. Intranet Design. 6. Accessibility for Users with Disabilities. 7. International Use: Serving A Global Audience. 8. Future Predictions: The Only Web Constant Is Change. 9. Conclusion: Simplicity in Web Design. Recommended Readings. Index. <s> BIB004
Usability studies in the development of children's software are firmly rooted in the design process. What is different in the case of children's software, however, is that until very recently, any usability research was carried out by adults rather than the target audience itself. As Hanna, Risden, Czerwinski, and Alexander (1999, p. 4) , researchers at Microsoft's Hardware Ergonomics and Usability Department, comment: ''Usability research with children has often been considered either too difficult to carry out with unruly subjects or not necessary for an audience that is satisfied with gratuitous animations and funny noises.'' Even now, many software companies employ only adults in their usability testing. If children are involved, it is in the limited role of testers of the technologies at the very end of the design process. Their behavior while using the technologies to perform task-oriented activities is observed, recorded, and analyzed by the adult design team, and the team then makes any changes to the design. BIB004 believes that children experience the same feelings of frustration, confusion, impatience, and waning interest as do adults when confronted with usability problems. He states that poor technologies, whether aimed at children or adults, share common usability problems such as unclear location markers, inconsistent navigation options, nonstandard interaction techniques, poor graphic and/or icon design for hypertext options, and complicated, complex wording. Although he considers his five usability attributes to be appropriate for both children and adults, Nielsen considers there are significant differences between designing for children and adults. BIB001 divide the design process into three stages: first, analyze the user's skills, expectations, and knowledge; second, analyze the tasks that the product is to support, in other words, the goals of the product and the children; and third, design the product in iterative phases based on the analysis of users and their tasks, test an idea, revise it according to feedback, and then test the revised idea. They conducted expert reviews of the technologies, made site visits to children's homes (the child's equivalent of the adult workplace) to get information about the importance of features (e.g., the ''help'' feature was often shut off by users during gaming because they felt it interfered with the activity) distributed questionnaires that used pictorial representations (e.g., happy and sad faces) rather than Likert scales so that younger children would be able to understand and respond, initiated low-tech card-sorting tasks to check out hierarchies and categories, and conducted tests on low-tech prototypes (although the prototypes were developed by adults, not by children). They also used iterative laboratory tests (where the children test a feature of the software, and based on their abilities, it is then revised and retested if necessary) and longitudinal testing to evaluate the effectiveness of the educational content or techniques. BIB002 BIB003 approach is different. In cooperative inquiry, she includes the children in all aspects of the design process, covering many more facets of the design process than simply the usability of the technology. She does, however, address usability issues as part of her overall design approach, using methods very similar to those of BIB001 . Druin, however, introduces the children to the design process before it has even begun. Her approach is much more informal than that of Hanna. Druin et al. (1999) believe that observation and participation methodologies in use for usability studies do not address the difficulty in studying the constantly changing interaction between children and technology. They have found that when children are presented with the opportunity to use technology how they want to use it, they often do not have a defined task and instead engage in open-ended and exploratory activities .