Interactive Television for Young Children: Developing Design Principles Ana Vitoria Joly Hulshof A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Brighton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2010 University of Brighton Abstract The research reported in this thesis investigates preschoolers‟ interactions with interactive television applications. The study involved the development of an electronic programme guide prototype and the empirical evaluation thereof. There were three main aims. The first aim was to analyse children‟s interactions and illustrate them in a framework to further understanding of the way preschoolers interact with the television. The second aim was to contribute design principles for preschool interactive television and the third aim was to refine methods and add to the knowledge of design and evaluation techniques involving young children. This research, which involved design and evaluation phases, was carried out with children in Brazil and in the United Kingdom aged between three and four. Children participated actively as informants and were asked for input at various stages of the project. Their participation during design activities and evaluation sessions was crucial to the constitution of the framework, the development of design principles and the refinement of methods for working with preschoolers. The results revealed that young children‟s interactions with interactive television are influenced by: the children‟s age, motor skills, country context, media and device use and knowledge. These factors along with the input device used for interaction and characteristics of the interactive television application determine the number of accomplishable tasks, the time taken to accomplish the tasks, the complexity of the tasks that can be accomplished, the hints and assistance as well as interactions needed to accomplish the tasks. The combination of such aspects is then reflected in the user experience. The main issues that occurred during the interaction with the prototype application are documented, and a list of design principles is presented to assist in the design and evaluation of interfaces that meet the needs, capabilities and interests of young children. Additionally, existing methods for design and evaluation were refined throughout the project and novel activities developed. The intention is that these contributions will be useful to designers and researchers of interactive television and those in the field of interaction design for children. ii Brief Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................ ii Brief Table of Contents .............................................................................................. iii Detailed Table of Contents ......................................................................................... vi List of Tables ............................................................................................................ xiii List of Figures .......................................................................................................... xiv Personal Preface ..................................................................................................... xvii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. xviii Funding .................................................................................................................... xix Dedication .................................................................................................................. xx Declaration ............................................................................................................... xxi Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Children and Television ......................................................................................... 1 1.3 Interaction Design for Children ............................................................................. 2 1.4 Interactive Television ............................................................................................. 4 1.5 Thesis Project ......................................................................................................... 5 1.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 7 Chapter 2. Relevant Research ................................................................................... 8 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 8 2.2 Context ................................................................................................................... 8 2.3 Requirements........................................................................................................ 23 2.4 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 3. Research Design .................................................................................... 52 3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 52 3.2 Research Approach .............................................................................................. 52 3.3 Research Design ................................................................................................... 54 3.4 Implementation of the Research Design .............................................................. 60 3.5 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 68 iii Chapter 4. Design Activities .................................................................................... 69 4.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 69 4.2 Prototype Wireframe ............................................................................................ 69 4.3 Observation .......................................................................................................... 72 4.4 Card Sorting Activities ......................................................................................... 81 4.5 Low-Tech Prototyping with Children ................................................................ 106 4.6 High-Fidelity Prototype ..................................................................................... 114 4.7 Expert Evaluations ............................................................................................. 120 4.8 Prototype Adjustments with Children ................................................................ 129 4.9 Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 134 Chapter 5. Evaluation Methods and Results ....................................................... 135 5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 135 5.2 Method ............................................................................................................... 135 5.3 Results ................................................................................................................ 153 5.4 Discussion .......................................................................................................... 251 5.5 Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 267 Chapter 6. Discussion ............................................................................................ 271 6.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 271 6.2 Young Children‟s Interactions with iTV ........................................................... 271 6.3 Design Principles ............................................................................................... 278 6.4 Techniques for Design and Evaluation .............................................................. 290 6.5 Conclusions ........................................................................................................ 295 Chapter 7. Conclusions and Future Work ........................................................... 297 7.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 297 7.2 Research Approach ............................................................................................ 297 7.3 Limitations of the Research ............................................................................... 298 7.4 Contributions of the Thesis ................................................................................ 298 7.5 Future Research .................................................................................................. 299 7.6 Concluding Remarks .......................................................................................... 301 Publications Relating to this Thesis .....................................................................