Usability testing with children

Usability testing with children is similar in many respects to usability testing with adults. In order to get the most out of the sessions, and ensure the child is comfortable and happy, there are a few differences that you need to be aware of.

Stress of new people and surroundings

Children are far more likely than adults to find encountering new places and people stressful. You should always remember this, so try to find as many ways as possible to relax the child. Some things you could do are:

- Allow a significant period of time - at least 10 minutes - to meet the child. This is critical in putting them at ease before beginning the session. Some easy things to talk about might be computer games, cartoons, sports or school. Trying to make all the equipment used during the session match that which the child uses at home/school (phone up their parents/teachers beforehand to check).

- Try to be as comforting and reassuring as possible. It's especially important to make it clear to the child that you want their views on the site and that you're not testing them.

- Plan for the fact that younger children may prefer their parents to remain in the testing room with them. Make sure that parents know that they should stay out of the child's line-of-sight and not help or distract them.

Asking for help

Children are far more used to asking for - and receiving - help than adults, so it's very important for the moderator to:

- Clearly explain at the beginning of the test that you want the child to use the site on their own

- Make a sustained effort to deflect any such questioning during the session itself

Good ways of deflecting questions can include:

- Answering a question with a question (e. g. What do you think [you should do now]?)

- Re-stating that you want the child to use the site ‘on their own'

- Asking the child to have ‘one last go' before you move on to something else

Children get tired, bored and discouraged more easily

Children (especially of younger ages) are less inclined - and/or able - to apply themselves to a single task for a prolonged period. Some ways to work around this are:

- Limiting sessions to 1 hour or less.

- Taking short breaks during sessions if the child becomes tired or irritable.

- Ensuring that sessions cover the intended tasks/scenarios in a different order - this will make sure that the same scenarios are not always tested by tired children, who are less likely to succeed/persevere.

- Asking the child for help so as to provide them with motivation (e. g. asking ‘Could you please find out for me how to...', or by actually pretending to not be able find/do something on the site).

- Keeping up a steady stream of encouragement and positive feedback ("You're doing really well and telling us lots of useful things - it will really help make the site better. Keep it up!").

The importance of non-verbal cues

Children can't always be relied upon to verbally articulate their thoughts/feelings, either due to their:

- Not being articulate enough

- Being too shy

- Not wanting to say the wrong thing and displease an adult

- Saying things they don't believe just to please the adult

This makes it particularly important that the usability expert be sensitive to children's non-verbal cues, such as:

- Sighs

- Smiles

- Frowns

- Yawns

- Fidgeting

- Laughing

- Swaying

- Body angle and posture

Physical differences

A couple of very obvious - but easily forgotten - differences which need to be taken into account are:

- Chair and table settings - Make sure you have a chair/table setting that allows the child to comfortably use the equipment during the session.

- Microphone positioning - Children tend to have quieter voices than adults, so microphones should be placed slightly nearer to the participant than normal.

Levels of literacy and understanding

It is critical to ensure that a session's participant has an accurate understanding of the scenario being presented to them. Some ways to do this include:

- Asking participants to re-phrase scenarios/goals in their own words.

- Asking participants to repeat a scenario (i. e. what they are trying to achieve) if the task has gone on for some time and you suspect they may have forgotten it.

Web site design color for you

Colors can influence our behavior, feelings and psyche. In fact, colors are oftentimes used as treatment to psychotics and other mentally incapacitated persons.

However, when it comes to web designing, many designers overlook the enigmatic power of colors. It can bring life to any image, text or graphics. It can create the atmosphere needed in order to capture the viewer's decision and loyalty. These are the reasons why colors should be on our topmost list of things that need to be considered in mounting a web site. You don't want a drab looking site, do you? It will appear, melancholic, chaotic, plain and boring. Thus, colors must be chosen in order to complement the site's ambiance, feelings and purpose.

Web browsers only see 256 colors. However, there are times when the number may not appear as such because no browser shares the same 256-color pallet. Nowadays, web browsers are sharing 216 common colors. Thus, in order to complement to other web browsers, web designers must stick to the 216-color pallet. If they go beyond this color pallet, chances are the colors may not exist on other browser. In order for the browser to display that particular color, it will need tiny dots from the colors native to the browser. The process is called dithering. Unfortunately, this will result to the distortion of some tiny dots. Further, this will make the image appear speckled and without a solid color. In connection to texts, dithering will make them blurry and hard to read.

Verdict: Web designers must use browser safe color when using solid color as a design element. However, caution must be exercised.

There are times when we feel we are tricked by our eyes. In fact there is what we call mirage? An optical illusion and there is a long list of optical illusions that can otherwise trick us. But there are times when we are neither tricked or deceived in fact it is an act of science. How do this happen?

At the back of our eyes, there is a thin layer of tissue. This layer of tissue contains millions of tiny light-sensing nerve cells which are called rods and cones. Our eyes have ample decoding cones. These cones are the ones responsible for responding to specific wavelengths of light. Say, when you look at a red box, the cones that have detected the red wavelength become exhausted and fatigued. As a result, opposite cones in the eyes start to enter and different colors are made apparent.

Eye fatigue is one of the important considerations in designing a web site. Thus, avoid colors that are tiring to the eyes. It can result to disaster and can further result to giving of wrong notion or idea to the viewers. Colors like red and yellow, strains the eye faster than any other colors. Thus, limit the use of these colors. Use them on areas that need emphasis and focus. This will surely pull viewers attention. Other that those areas - a big no-no!