Designing a Value Centred Inspection Method for Children

Abstract

There are currently several evaluation methods suited to children within the Child-Computer Interaction (CCI) community. However, these methods are user based leaving a gap in inspection method suited to children, that is, where children will act as the inspection method evaluators. This research focused on how to design an effective and easy to use inspection method where children will perform the evaluation based on their values.
To ensure that the above is met, a user centred approach and a mixed methodology was explored and finally resulted in the creation of the Inspection Method for Children (IMCH) with an accompanying guideline. This six stages method could be used by CCI researchers as a guide to develop similar methods for children, by industries to perform inspection method evaluation with children on technologies designed for children and could be used by designers to gather design criteria for children’s technology. The process undertaken within this research to develop the new method is also novel and could be adapted by new and old researchers when adapting method to suit children.
Future work will focus on carrying out evaluation with wider age range of children in the method to ensure suitability of the method for more children. Comparative studies of the method with other usability method to determine the effectiveness of the method and as a refinement process to produce a validated and refined IMCH method.