Building a Playground: General Guidelines for Creating Educational Web Sites for Children

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Usability Engineering
• Children's User Experience

Background:

• Children's internet usage has grown significantly, with a substantial portion dedicated to educational purposes.
• Existing research on designing websites for children is limited, often extrapolating from adult user experience principles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide guidelines for technical communicators to design effective educational websites for children.
• To bridge the gap between existing design literature and the specific needs of young internet users.

Main Methods:

• A usability test was conducted with nine children aged 7-9 on an educational website called CARES Playground.
• The website design was informed by a review of literature on designing for children.
• Common themes from literature were matched against usability test results.

Main Results:

• While core design themes like navigation, appearance, and content are familiar from adult web design, their specific application for children can yield surprising results.
• Children's reactions to design elements highlight the need for tailored approaches.

Conclusions:

• Technical communicators must be deliberate in designing websites for children, considering their developmental stages and preferences.
• Guidelines are presented to aid in creating educational websites that meet learning objectives.
• Further research is recommended to expand upon these initial findings.