DigiPlay 3: Leisure Constraints, Entitlement and Access to Technologies of Leisure

Greenbank Building,
University of Central Lancashire, Preston
Weds 15th Sept 2004

Children evaluating and designing their own technologies – what can we learn about age and gender stereotypes?

Janet C Read
UCLAN
JCRead@uclan.ac.uk

This paper draws together findings from eight field studies in which children of different ages have been involved in the design and the evaluation of interactive products for leisure and fun. These studies comprise four participatory design workshops and four evaluation activities with boys and girls aged between 6 and 16. The findings from these studies indicate clear differences in the attitudes to technology based on gender and age. Discussion about the impact of these different attitudes on access and engagement includes some interesting insights about how children of the different ages relate to technology in mixed age and mixed sex groups.

Janet Read is a Senior Lecturer in Computing at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston. She is a member of the Child Computer Interaction Group (www.chici.org) where she leads projects on Handwriting Recognition and Children, Designing Interactive Products with Children, Evaluating Fun, and Using Digital Ink with Children. She has published widely in these areas and has delivered international tutorials and seminar series on the design and evaluation of interfaces for children. She co-organised the 2nd International Interaction Design and Children Conference in 2003 and is a member of the NordiChi2004 programme committee.

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