Designing Digital Products for Kids
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Today kids see adults using digital products all the time. Their natural instinct to imitate adult behaviours and their natural curiosity about new things make them also want to use these products. Unlike previous generations, these digital natives believe that technology exists to serve them, instead of the other way around. Therefore, designers cannot ignore kids as users and consumers of digital products. However, designing for kids, especially for young kids, is substantially different from designing products for adults. According to Jean Piaget, the psychologist renowned for his work on child development, it is necessary to cater to the emotional, physical, and cognitive development of kids. Designers should design products that address these developmental needs; doing so will help designers find their products highly sought-after and preferred by kids and their parents.
This essay presents some design principles and strategies for kids’ digital products, which take into account these development needs.
When it comes to cognitive development of kids, Piaget delineated four stages. These are: the Sensorimotor Stage, the Preoperational Stage, the Concrete Operational Stage, and the Formal Operational Stage. Children aged 2 to 6 usually go through the preoperational stage where they start using language as a communication tool. They learn to associate words with physical objects. Kids are full of imagination at this stage and they love pretending games. Children aged 7 to 11 are at the Concrete Operational Stage, where they begin to understand concrete ideas but still have difficulty understanding abstract concepts.
The emotional development of kids also plays an important role when designing for kids. Their self-esteem is influenced by how they feel others view them. Therefore, it is important for designers to consider how children will feel when they use the digital product they design. Saarni summarizes noteworthy descriptive markers of emotional development in relation to social interaction. Kids increase their emotional maturity and social competence by interacting with other kids. They learn to share, wait their turn, and handle conflicts while playing with others. Pretend play also allows kids to think out loud their feeling and experiences.
Another aspect needs to be considered is the physical development of kids. When interacting with devices, the users’ motor skills set the scope of the interactive gestures that work best for them. The research conducted by Nielsen Norman Group with kids on the web and mobile devices shows that the physical development of motor skills and motor coordination influences kids’ ability to interact with devices. Roughly, kids under 5 require very simple physical interactions on touchscreens. As they grow older, they are gradually comfortable with laptops and complicated gestures.
Based on all the research I have made and my experiences (listed in Table 1), I summarized some design principles when designing for kids.
(1) Ease of understanding:
Due to the immature cognitive development of kids aged 3 to 12, designers should not design product elements or features that are too abstract or conceptual. In addition, considering their low literacy level, adding auto-display voice on digital products might be a good choice.
(2) Ease of use:
Touchscreen devices would be more friendly for younger kids, whereas older kids are comfortable with both touchscreens and laptops. It would also be important to make the interaction gestures easy for kids. Tapping, swiping, dragging on touchscreens may be more suitable for kids aged 3 to 5. Kids between 6 and 12 can perform simple actions on both the keyboard and mouse.
(3) Design for different stages of development:
Kids change quickly. They get bored quickly if the product becomes too easy for them. So products have to be tailored for different age groups.
References:
[1] R. Cantuni, “Designing apps for young kids,” Medium, 1 April 2018.
[2] D. L. Gelman, Design for Kids, New York: Louis Rosenfeld, 2014.
[3] J. Piaget, The Psychology Of The Child, New York: Basic Books, 1969.
[4] D. L. a. F. C. D. Gallahue, “Developmental Physical Education for All Children,” Human Kinetics, 2003.
[5] C. Saarni, “Emotional Development in Childhood,” EMOTIONS, 2011.
[6] J. P. a. M. R. J. Isenberg, “What is Play Important? Social and Emotional Development, Physical Development, Creative Development,” 8 11 2010. [Online]. Available: http://www.education.com/reference/article/importance-play—social-emotional/.
[7] F. Liu, “Design for Kids Based on Their Stage of Physical Development,” 8 7 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/children-ux-physical-development/.
[8] “EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT,” [Online]. Available: https://www.pgpedia.com/e/emotional-development.