Children searching information on the Internet: Performance on children's interfaces compared to Google

Children frequently make use of the Internet to search for information. However, research shows that children experience many problems with searching and browsing the web. The last decade numerous search environments have been developed, especially for children. Do these search interfaces support children in effective information-seeking? And do these interfaces add value to today’s popular search engines, such as Google? In this explorative study, we compared children’s search performance on four interfaces designed for children, with their performance on Google. We found that the children did not perform better on these interfaces than on Google. This study also uncovered several problems that children experienced with these search interfaces, which can be of use for designers of future search interfaces for children

Measuring children's search behaviour on a large scale

Children often experience problems during information-seeking using traditional search interfaces and search technologies, that are designed for adults. This is because children engage with the world in fundamentally different ways than adults. To design search technologies that support children in effective and enjoyable information-seeking, more research is needed to examine children’s specific skills and needs concerning information-seeking. Therefore, we developed an application that can monitor children’s search behaviour on a large scale. In this paper, we present the steps taken to develop this application. The basis of the application is UsaProxy, an existing system that is used to monitor the user’s usage of websites. We have increased the accuracy of UsaProxy and have developed an application that is able to extract useful information from UsaProxy’s log files

Three types of children’s informational web sites: an inventory of design conventions

"Purpose: Research on Web design conventions has an almost exclusive focus on Web design for adults. There is far less knowledge about Web design for children. For the first time, an overview is presented of the current design conventions for children's informational Web sites. Method: In this study a large corpus of 100 children's international, informational Web sites from four different domains (science, pets, arts, and health) is analyzed. The instrument for analyzing the Web sites included categories on visual design, navigation and information architecture. Results: The design conventions identified in this study show that designers of children's informational Web sites often follow general Web design guidelines. This study also shows that there is still much confusion about how to design Web sites for children. A closer look at the data revealed three categories of informational Web sites especially designed for children, diverging from a classical to a playful design approach. Conclusion: An overview is presented of the current design conventions for children's informational Web sites. The identified design conventions should be further tested and validated as design standards for children's informational Web design. Further, the design of children's informational Web sites is determined by two dimensions of aesthetics; classical and expressive. In this study, expressive aesthetics results in playful visual design or in a total playful interaction design. The effects of playful design on children's affect and cognition will be an important topic in future research on children's digital search behavior.

Websites for childen: search strategies and interface design. Three studies on children's search performance and evaluation

Children experience all kinds of problems using search interfaces for adults such as Google. The research reported in this dissertation is about the design of informational interfaces for children between 8 and 12 years old. The goal of the research was to learn more about interfaces that ‘work’ for children and interfaces that children ‘like’. The first step in the research was a corpus study to identify design conventions of children’s search interfaces. The design conventions showed that designers of children’s informational websites often follow general web design guidelines. A closer look at the data revealed three categories of informational websites for children: \ud 1) classical interface design with a classical interaction style and without playful graphics (Classic)\ud 2) interface design with playful graphics, but a classical interaction style (Classical play)\ud 3) playful interface design with playful graphics and a playful interaction style (Image map) \ud The second step was an explorative study (with 32 children aged 8-12) to explore children’s search behaviour on existing search interfaces. The results of this study suggested that playful navigation lowers usability of a website but playful visual design seemed to have a positive effect on perception of hedonic quality. These research directions were empirically tested in an experiment (with 158 children aged 10-12), which was the third step in the research. The same website was designed in the three different types of interface design. The used search method (i.e. browsing or searching) was manipulated by providing a website version to the children with or without a search engine. \ud We concluded from the studies that there is no difference in children’s search performance between the three different types of interface design. However, the children evaluated the Classical play website as best to work with and the Image map website as least good to work with. Children appreciate playful design but it may not be at the expense of usability for children. Ease of use is more important for children than having a playful experience. Furthermore, providing a search engine is an absolute necessity to optimally support children in effective and efficient search performance

How Interface Design and Search Strategy Influence Children’s Search Performance and Evaluation

This chapter presents an experiment with 158 children, aged 10 to 12, in which search performance and attitudes towards an informational Website are investigated. The same Website was designed in 3 different types of interface design varying in playfulness of navigation structure and in playfulness of visual design. The type of interface design did not have an effect on children’s search performance, but it did influence children’s feelings of emotional valence and their evaluation of “goodness.” Children felt most positive about the Website with a classical navigation structure and playful aesthetics. They found the playful image map Website least good. More importantly, children’s search performance was much more effective and efficient when using the search engine than when browsing the menu. Furthermore, this chapter explores the challenge of measuring affective responses towards digital interfaces with children by presenting an elaborate evaluation of different methods

4th KidRec Workshop - "what does good look like?": From design, research, and practice to policy

Data about people are constantly collected and stored to help understand patterns which can then be leveraged by information retrieval systems (IRS), such as search engines or recommender systems, to identify and rank resources that respond to diverse users' needs. As a significant group of technology users, children's data are also collected for IRS. In the 4th edition of our proposed workshop, we seek to continue to build professional community connected to children's IRS and expand on the framework identified in the 3rd KidRec that outlines how to evaluate good IRS. This time, we are particularly interested in exploring how design, research, and practice perspectives can cohesively define policy in this area

ImagePile: an Alternative for Vertical Results Lists of IR- Systems

Recent work shows that children are very well capable of searching with Google, due to their familiarity with the interface. However, children do have difficulties with the vertical list representation of the results. In this paper, we present an alternative result representation for a touch interface, the ImagePile. The ImagePile displays the results as a pile of images where the user navigates through via horizontal swiping. This representation was tested on a search engine for the EMMA child hospital‟s library. Using a within subject experiment, both representations were tested with children to compare the usability of both systems. The vertical representation was perceived as easier to use, but the ImagePile system was considered more fun to use. Also, with the ImagePile system more relevant results we chosen by the children, and they were more aware of the number of results