Tips for Usability Testing with Children

By Tom Stewart
Joint Managing Director, System Concepts


Children represent a huge market for digital products yet most are designed by and for adults. Even those which are targeted at children often get it embarrassingly wrong – like dads trying to be ‘cool’. But all is not lost. We have found that user research and testing with children opens up a whole new perspective, helping adult designers to see the world through the eyes of a child.

Our user research with children has ranged from social networking and mobile phones to online games and websites targeted at everyone from toddlers to teens. Here we share some of the lessons we have learnt in adapting our usability research and testing methods for children...

THE TESTING ENVIRONMENT
Have a close look at the environment you are using for the testing. Is it friendly and welcoming to children or is it a bit cold and clinical with lots of distractions? Removing distractions and adding a bit of comfort and colour can make a big difference to results.

When testing with younger children it is important to have a parent or familiar adult around to provide reassurance. The adult may or may not participate directly in the session depending on what we are trying to achieve and what sort of feedback we need.

If a parent would normally help their child use a website, then it can be helpful to observe when they step in to help. They can also help with answering questions and comment on how the children usually work at home.

To get a true understanding of childrens' behaviour we also find it very valuable to interview children and their parents at home, and to observe them at school. This allows us to see how they behave in their normal environment, without the distractions and unfamiliarity of a testing lab.

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