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This article reviews the literature on the role that children can play in the design of information technology applications intended for young users themselves. It discusses several relevant design theories -User-Centered Design, Contextual Inquiry, Participatory Design, Cooperative Inquiry, Informant Design and Learner-Centered Design -looks at usability issues in relation to design and children, and presents a number of studies in which children have been actively involved in the design both of software and web portals. Designers are finding that children as well as adults can have a valuable and complementary role to play in the design process, although its precise nature is a matter of debate.

This article reviews the literature on the role that children can play in the design of information technology applications intended for young users themselves. It discusses several relevant design theories -User-Centered Design, Contextual Inquiry, Participatory Design, Cooperative Inquiry, Informant Design and Learner-Centered Design -looks at usability issues in relation to design and children, and presents a number of studies in which children have been actively involved in the design both of software and web portals. Designers are finding that children as well as adults can have a valuable and complementary role to play in the design process, although its precise nature is a matter of debate.

This article describes and discusses the detailed procedures followed by two intergenerational teams comprising the researchers and a group of eight grade-six elementary students (ages 11 to 12 years) and a group of six third-grade elementary students (ages 8 to 9 years), respectively, in designing two prototype Web portals intended for use by elementary school students. These procedures were based on three design theories: Contextual Inquiry, Participatory Design, and Cooperative Inquiry. The article also presents and describes the two resulting Web portal prototypes and discusses the design criteria employed by the teams. Conclusions are elaborated on the basis of this research experience regarding how such a design process should be conducted in the context of an intergenerational team, and what characteristics young users expect to find in Web portals that they will use to support their informational needs in terms of elementary school projects and assignments.

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This paper describes and discusses the process undertaken by a design team comprising both elementary school students and researchers to design a web portal intended for use by children. The team of eight grade-six students and three researchers met twice per week over 12 sessions to design a low-tech prototype. The approach adopted by the team was based upon several design theories related to usability studies: contextual inquiry, participatory design and cooperative inquiry. The advantages of such an inter-generational approach to portal design are presented as well as some of its problems.

This article explores the aesthetic design criteria that should be incorporated into the information visualization of a taxonomy intended for use by children. Seven elementary-school students were each asked to represent their ideas in drawings for visualizing a taxonomy. Their drawings were analyzed according to six criteria-balance, equilibrium, symmetry, unity, rhythm, and economy-identified as aesthetic measures in previous research. The drawings revealed the presence of all six measures, and three-unity, equilibrium, and rhythm-were found to play an especially important role. It is therefore concluded that an aesthetic design for an information visualization for young users should incorporate all six measures.