Personas

Personas are pretty difficult to complete with my target audience due to their age, and restrictions that poses on me. Therefore it is important to note that these personas are based on questions asked by teacher and parents and passed on to me.

While important, the childs persona isn’t the only relevant one in this situation as parents are also revelant personas as they are the ones who will allow their child to use technology, or purchase products for their child.

The mother works hard to earn a living to support her family, she likes to see her daughter happy and will do what she can to keep her entertained. That said, she wants to make sure her child is doing something reasonably productive, even if it is while she is playing a game. You can see the persona for the mother here;

The daughters persona is much different, as while she works hard at school to impress her parents, and for her own benifit, she much more appreciates her down time. She wants to relax and have fun, anything like learning doesn’t seem like a great use of her down time. As she has no/little sense of the value of money, she relies no her mother to provide her toys and luxuries. You can see the persona for the daughter here;

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Knowing my target audience

To create a website that will work for my audience effectively, it is vital that I truly understand them. While I consider my audience to be between the ages of 6-12, in a matter of fact it should be defined into smaller categories as the knowledge and abilities of the ages 6 and 12 are completely different. Therefore the categories should be split up into the groups 6-8 and 9-12.

6-8 Age Range

It is important that the user will not always understand the language used with adults site, therefore it is vital to change the language so that they understand. An example would be instead of using the word “Submit” instead use the word “Start” or “Go”and instead of “Username” it shoould say “Nickname”.

9-12 Age Range

By this age, the users will be very accustomed with using a website, and they will be able to scroll through content very quickly but will have difficulty differentiating between adverts and content.

What I learnt

The use of big, bold, bright colors and pictures for both age ranges is vital as it help the user understand how to navigate the website. Using gestures on mobile platforms is too complex for the kids and ui should consist of tapping and scrolling only, instead of pinch and zoom features.

Icons that match the functions of buttons should be present to allow the user to understand the context of what they are seeing. A home icon should be present throughout the site as to allow for easy navigating.

Referencing nature in the site will be vital as it’s one the things they know the most about at such a young age, and find these references visually stimulating.

Design elements, like buttons, should be made to appear in a large format on the screen.

Depth should be implemented into the design, so that the user can use their imagination to believe it is real.

Kids don’t enjoy large amounts of reading, even the parts where kids learn about other cultures should contain as little text as possible.

Changing the mouse to be another animal, perhaps the food of the frog, a fly in my case, could grab the attention of the user.

Not using a grid format makes a website more exciting for children.

A section for parents is vital to allow the parents to understand tyhe concept of the site.

References:

https://www.usertesting.com/blog/2015/04/29/ux-for-kids/

Designing Websites For Kids: Trends And Best Practices

Researching the demographic

The following study by american based organisation allowed me to discover my demographic. The study is somewhat bias as it is a study of American residents only. That said it should give me some valuable information about my target audience. It is important to note that this was a questionaire of the parents and their views on letting their children use the web.

Out of the 400 parents questioned, only 119 parents let their children use technology meaning only 29.8% of all children were able to access a site at home. This further encourages the use of my site within playgroups and schools.

This section suggests that the children may not be able to access the web and only predownloaded apps that the parents decided previously were suitable. This means not only should we market to adults who have children, but make the homepage explain the service without complications so the parenst know it is a safe site for their children to use.

Finally, 74.7% of all children actually allowed to use the site are restricted in the amount of time they allowed to use the site for. Therefore, the site needs to be very quick loading, light on data and easy to navigate for ease of use and simplifying the user journey throughout the experience.

Resources;

https://aytm.com/blog/daily-survey-results/educational-technology-survey/