Designing E-Learning Applications with Students: The Case of the We!Design Methodology

Designing Educational Technology Products With Children

While the literature is quite rich in case studies of adult users participating in the design of technology products (e.g. Bødker et al., 1991; Muller, 1991), it is nevertheless limited when it comes to children as participants (Nesset & Large, 2004). There are two main reasons why this is the case. The first and most important reason is that children are an extremely diverse and special user group per se. Markopoulos & Bekker (2003) adopt Akuff and Reiher’s four developmental stages to distinguish the following age groups for children: (a) the dependency/exploratory stage (ages birth–2 years), (b) the emerging-autonomy stage (ages 3–7), (c) the rule/role stage (ages 8–12), and (d) early and late adolescence (age 13 upwards). Each age group is characterized by its specific cognitive abilities, social behavior patterns, relations, preferences in technology products and interfaces, and so on. Thus, it is imperative that any team involved in design projects that plans to involve children in the design process should establish beforehand a deep understanding of children’s cognitive, social and developmental traits and adapt its methods and techniques to the corresponding age group.