An Interactive Design Framework for Children’s Apps for Enhancing Emotional Experience

Abstract

Young children’s user experiences of educational applications (apps) can potentially support their cognitive development and improve the quality of parent–child relationships. However, to realize such potential, app designers must consider children’s emotional needs. Through a comprehensive review of the relevant literature, this paper develops an interactive design framework that can trigger three positive emotions, which is then used as a scale to conduct a design analysis of 72 apps available on the Australian and Chinese Apple App Store. We found that the interactive design scale based on emotional design is feasible; and an interactive design method that focuses on emotions affects the emotional benefits of parent–child users from apps and obtaining higher user ratings. It is thus demonstrated that paying attention to these design criteria will affect the emotional benefits young children receive from apps, thereby increasing users’ interest and support for the product. Lastly, we discuss the implications of improving the methods emotional experience and encourage future designers to bridge the gap between research and practice.

The Importance of Aesthetics in Design Education

“…The findings have emphasized that aesthetics serve as a catalyst for creativity, innovation, and critical thinking in design. By integrating aesthetics into the curriculum, design teachers can provide students with a platform to develop their sensitivity to user experience, enabling them to create designs that are not only visually appealing but also emotionally resonant [14].…”

An Impact-Centered, Sustainable, Positive Experience Design Model

“…Wu contributed a positive experience design model for intelligent products of the Internet of Things (IoT), which covers the design path from pleasurable experiences to personal significance and group relationships [13]. Chen developed an emotional interaction design framework model for children's application development, guiding designers to enrich users' pleasure and cognition by enhancing users' emotional experiences [14]. Perrino's model, designed for temporal harmony, revealed the potential impact of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors on users' current positive experiences within the positive experience cycle, inspiring designers to improve positive experiences by changing users' cognitive memory and plans [15].…”