A Although user-centered design is a well-supported concept in the literature on adult computer products, not until recently have publications begun to appear addressing the need to include the user in the design process of children's computer products. Good examples are a recent panel discussion in interactions on the importance of understanding the perspectives and needs of children, and the energizing work of Allison Druin and Cynthia Solomon [1, 2]. Growth has also occurred in evaluation research in both the industrial and academic communities, assessing the effectiveness or appeal of various types of Fax: +1-425-936-7329 a-kalexa@microsoft.com

This paper describes exploratory research on how to evaluate concepts for new computer games with small samples of eight-and nine-year-old children. There were two phases to the research, one to validate the methodology with existing games and one to apply the methodology to new game ideas. The results found that separating game ideas (presented as brief written descriptions that were also read aloud to children) from game art (presented on computer screens) elicited the most valid reactions from the children. Rankings and discussion of rationale were more effective than ratings and open-ended questions. Conclusions are that children can effectively evaluate the appeal and potential of game concepts with appropriate methodology.

Fishnet is a web browser that always displays web pages in their entirety, independent of their size. Fishnet accomplishes this by using a fisheye view, i.e. by showing a focus region at readable scale while spatially compressing page content above and below that region. Fishnet offers search term highlighting, and assures that those terms are readable by using "popouts". This allows users to visually scan search results within the entire page without scrolling. The scope of this paper is twofold. First, we present fishnet as a novel way of viewing the results of highlighted search and we discuss the design space. Second, we present a user study that helps practitioners determine which visualization techniquefisheye view, overview, or regular linear view-to pick for which type of visual search scenario.

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