Abstract

Due to their developing perceptual-motor abilities, young children face difficulties when using input devices to interact with computers. While most developers of technologies for young children are aware of these issues, there is a dearth of guidelines for designing and evaluating interactions for young children's technologies. In this talk, I present my research in this topic, outlining the first steps towards obtaining these guidelines. I will present the results of a study comparing the performance of preschool children and young adults conducting point-and-click tasks with the mouse that illustrates the differences in performance between age groups. The analysis of the results of this study includes a careful examination of the sub-movements taken by participants to complete tasks. This analysis of sub-movements provided the inspiration for an algorithm based on simple heuristics to detect when children have difficulty pointing. I will also present the results of a similar study that suggests that mouse size is unlikely to affect the results of evaluations of interactions designed for preschool children. The results of this study also provide evidence of the importance of experience in children's performance with the mouse.