Children’s Control/Display Stereotypes

Abstract

Objective The aim of this study was to determine control/display stereotypes for children of a range of ages and development of these stereotypes with age. Background Little is known about control/display stereotypes for children of different ages and the way in which these stereotypes develop with age. This study is part of a program to determine the need to design differentially for these age groups. Method We tested four groups of children with various tasks (age groups 5 to 7, 8 to 10, 11 to 13, 14 to 16), with about 30 in each group. Examples of common tasks were opening a bottle, turning on taps, and allocating numbers to keypads. More complex tasks involved rotating a control to move a display in a requested direction. Results Tasks with which different age groups were familiar showed no effect of age group. Different control/display arrangements generally showed an increase in stereotype strength with age, with dependence on the form of the control/display arrangement. Two-dimensional arrangements, with the control on the same plane as the display, had higher stereotype strength than three-dimensional arrangements for all age groups, suggesting an effect of familiarity with controls and displays with increasing age. Conclusion Children's control/display stereotypes do not differ greatly from those of adults, and hence, design for children older than 5 years of age, for control/display stereotypes, can be the same as that for adult populations. Application When designing devices for children, the relationship between controls and displays can be as for adult populations, for which there are considerable experimental data.

Population Stereotypes for Objects and Representations: Response Tendencies for Interacting With Everyday Objects and Interfaces

“…Knowing what spatial properties give rise to intuitive responses can help designers make decisions of object attributes to include in their products, especially if the products are intended for use by a general audience. For example, Hoffmann, Chan, and Tai (2018) used a mock-up of a stovetop to study display-control stereotypes in children as young as 5 years old. Although children this young are not expected to cook with a stovetop, use of this stimulus allowed the researchers to capture presence or absence of response tendencies based on spatial properties of the object.…”