Little Craftsman
This project focused on creating a digital interface for children that promotes a qualified use of the virtual environment, balancing online entertainment with off-screen activities. The initial research explored the behavior of children between the ages of 7 and 11 in relation to digital interfaces, investigating preferences for colors, typography and illustrations, as well as the impacts of excessive use of these technologies.
Overview
The research focused on understanding children's behavior with digital interfaces, addressing the impact of excessive exposure and cognitive development. Data was collected remotely from 60 children (7 to 11 years old) on preferences for colors, illustrations, shapes and typography.
Research
Analysis of the most commonly used interfaces, along with research insights, revealed that children prefer geometric shapes, saturated colors, and a combination of simplified and realistic lines. Despite the predominance of lowercase text in similar applications, we chose to use uppercase to make it easier for children who are learning to read.
Child Interface Analysis
Activities that stimulate cognitive development
Encourage activities outside the digital environment
Provide educational warnings about the online period
Encourage completion of proposed activities
The experience building phase begins with an understanding of the impacts of excessive screen time and theories about child development in digital environments. From there, interface requirements and key features were defined to effectively address these challenges.
Ideation
Problems pointed out by author
Possible interventions
Low fidelity prototypes
Based on the findings made in the research phase, a prototype was developed with a virtual character, Jean-Michel, inspired by the artist Basquiat. His role is to guide and motivate children to complete activities, reducing dropout rates and creating an emotional bond.
Virtual
character
To balance online time, a bonus system of coins and crowns was implemented to encourage breaks from screen time. This system rewards children for staying offline, making rest a desirable part of the experience.
Bonus system
The interface also offers customization, where children can use their rewards to customize the virtual character, promoting a playful and engaging experience.
Personalization
Although this project meets its functional specifications, there is still a wide range of possibilities that can be implemented or improved, especially since it is a cyclical methodology of testing and analysis to refine the product. Best practices, heuristics, and design principles are the framework and starting point for developing a good product, but optimizing user experience goals comes from real-world testing and applications that were not possible due to the short period of time allocated to complete this course completion project and the ongoing social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This research contributes to the proposal of solutions that aim to minimize the harm to children caused by the excessive use of digital environments. It is not presented, therefore, with the intention of exhausting the subject or depreciating the use of digital products in childhood, as we are aware of the importance of technology as a problem-solving tool, facilitator of activities and democratizer of access to knowledge.