Recognition of animated icons by elementary‐aged children

Abstract

This paper describes a study to investigate the recognizability of and preference for animated icons by elementary‐aged aged children. Fourteen typical computer‐related tasks (e.g., copy, move) were viewed by 60 school‐children in two iconic formats: animated and static. The content of the icons and the computer process or action they mimicked were drawn from a previous study in which a similar group of children was asked to depict gesturally their interpretation of the 14 tasks. Results indicated that the animated version of the icons was more recognizable and that the children greatly preferred the animated icons over the static icons. Implications for the design of enhanced user‐interfaces for children are noted