Article

Assessing usability and fun in educational software

Authors:

Stuart MacFarlane,

Gavin Sim,

Matthew HortonAuthors Info & Claims

IDC '05: Proceedings of the 2005 conference on Interaction design and children

Pages 103 - 109

https://doi.org/10.1145/1109540.1109554

Published: 08 June 2005 Publication History

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Abstract

We describe an investigation into the relationship between usability and fun in educational software designed for children. Twenty-five children aged between 7 and 8 participated in the study. Several evaluation methods were used; some collected data from observers, and others collected reports from the users. Analysis showed that in both observational data, and user reports, ratings for fun and usability were correlated, but that there was no significant correlation between the observed data and the reported data. We discuss the possible reasons for these findings, and describe a method that was successful in eliciting opinions from young children about fun and usability.

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Vera LComa IPérez MRiera JMartínez BGimeno J(2024)The Mediterranean forest in a science museum: engaging children through drawings that come to life in a virtual worldMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-024-18606-083:31(76851-76872)Online publication date: 17-Feb-2024
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Yang TLi HImtiaz MHeinrich EEijgenraam SBlagojevic R(2023)Usability of Chat and Forum Discussion Tools in Higher EducationProceedings of the 35th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference10.1145/3638380.3638392(504-517)Online publication date: 2-Dec-2023
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Garcia-Ruiz MSantana-Mancilla PGaytan-Lugo LIniguez-Carrillo A(2022)Participatory Design of Sonification Development for Learning about Molecular Structures in Virtual RealityMultimodal Technologies and Interaction10.3390/mti61000896:10(89)Online publication date: 12-Oct-2022
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Assessing usability and fun in educational software
1. Applied computing
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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Published In

IDC '05: Proceedings of the 2005 conference on Interaction design and children

June 2005

128 pages

ISBN:1595930965

DOI:10.1145/1109540

Conference Chairs:
Mike Eisenberg,
Ann Eisenberg

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 08 June 2005

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IDC05

IDC05: Interaction Design and Children

June 8 - 10, 2005

Colorado, Boulder

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Overall Acceptance Rate 172 of 578 submissions, 30%

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Vera LComa IPérez MRiera JMartínez BGimeno J(2024)The Mediterranean forest in a science museum: engaging children through drawings that come to life in a virtual worldMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-024-18606-083:31(76851-76872)Online publication date: 17-Feb-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-024-18606-0
Yang TLi HImtiaz MHeinrich EEijgenraam SBlagojevic R(2023)Usability of Chat and Forum Discussion Tools in Higher EducationProceedings of the 35th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference10.1145/3638380.3638392(504-517)Online publication date: 2-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3638380.3638392
Garcia-Ruiz MSantana-Mancilla PGaytan-Lugo LIniguez-Carrillo A(2022)Participatory Design of Sonification Development for Learning about Molecular Structures in Virtual RealityMultimodal Technologies and Interaction10.3390/mti61000896:10(89)Online publication date: 12-Oct-2022
https://doi.org/10.3390/mti6100089
Tisza GSim GGramenos DPapavlasopoulou S(2022)Fun in LearningProceedings of the 21st Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3501712.3536385(709-711)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3501712.3536385
Pienimäki MKinnula MIivari N(2021)Finding fun in non-formal technology educationInternational Journal of Child-Computer Interaction10.1016/j.ijcci.2021.100283(100283)Online publication date: Mar-2021
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2021.100283
Askarbekuly NSolovyov ALukyanchikova EPimenov DMazzara M(2021)Building an Educational Product: Constructive Alignment and Requirements EngineeringAdvances in Artificial Intelligence, Software and Systems Engineering10.1007/978-3-030-80624-8_44(358-365)Online publication date: 8-Jul-2021
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Papastergiou MMastrogiannis I(2020)Design, development and evaluation of open interactive learning objects for secondary school physical educationEducation and Information Technologies10.1007/s10639-020-10390-226:3(2981-3007)Online publication date: 20-Nov-2020
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Tommy CMinoi JSian C(2019)Assessing Fun and Engagement in Mobile Applications for Children with Speech DelayApplied Mechanics and Materials10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.892.79892(79-87)Online publication date: Jun-2019
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Assessing the applicability of the structured expert evaluation method (SEEM) for a wider age group

Teachers' involvement in usability testing with children

Finding fun in non-formal technology education

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Assessing the applicability of the structured expert evaluation method (SEEM) for a wider age group

Teachers' involvement in usability testing with children

Finding fun in non-formal technology education

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