ABSTRACT
While standard icons often exist for common tasks, it can be difficult to design meaningful icons for non-standard tasks. Following a desire to build a music application that does not rely on text-based instructions, this paper explores suitable iconic representations for a 'record music' function on a mobile device. A study was carried out with primary school children (aged 8--10) to explore their current understanding of icons and elicit their requirements. It was seen that they were familiar with common icons, but that audio recording remains a difficult concept to represent through icons alone.
- Bekker, M. et al. (2003) KidReporter: a User Requirements Gathering Technique for Designing with Children. Interacting with Computers 15(2) pp187--202.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Cooke, J. & Woollard, J. (2004) Visual Literacy and How Children Use Icons. Available from http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/55253/01/chapter9-1.pdf (last checked March 2009).Google Scholar
- Dindler et al. (2005) Mission from Mars -- a Method for Exploring User Requirements for Children in a Narrative Space. In IDC 2005. ACM: Boulder. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Norman, K. L. (1991) The Psychology of Menu Selection. Intellect Books: Bristol. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Preece, J. et al. (1994) Human-Computer Interaction. Addison Wesley: Essex. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Read, J. C; MacFarlane, S. & Gregory, P. (2004) Requirements for the Design of a Handwriting Recognition Based Writing Interface for Children. In IDC 2004. ACM: Maryland. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Sharp, H.; Rogers, Y. & Preece, J. (2007) Interaction Design (2nd Ed). Wiley: Barcelona.Google Scholar
- Shneiderman, B. & Plaisant, C. (2005) Designing the User Interface (4th Ed). Pearson Education: Boston.Google Scholar
- Thang, B. et al. (2008) Comparing the Creativity of Children's Design Solutions Based on Expert Assessment. In IDC'08. ACM: Chicago. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Uden, L. & Dix, A. (2000) Iconic Interfaces for Kids on the Internet. In IFIP World Computer Congress. IFIP: Beijing.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Designing the 'record' button: using children's understanding of icons to inform the design of a musical interface
Recommendations
Display button: a marriage of GUI and PUI
HCI'07: Proceedings of the 12th international conference on Human-computer interaction: interaction platforms and techniquesGUI (graphical user interface) output and PUI (physical user interface) input are two major concepts of user interface design for commercial products. GUIs and PUIs have been normally implemented on individual devices such as a screen and sets of buttons,...
Effects of training and representational characteristics in icon design
Icons are a very important component of graphical user interfaces. However, icon design is still predominantly artistic in nature and as a result icon selection is generally based on usability evaluations after a set of alternative icons are developed. ...
Measuring User Performance for Different Interfaces Using a Word Processor Prototype
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Part I: New TrendsUsability tests were conducted in order to establish the effect on user performance of different icon sets in a word processor. Both a set of alternative pictorial icons and text buttons were developed for a subset of word processor functions for ...
Comments