John Benson

Course CSG170

Individual Homework #2

The activity which I focused on is observing how my girlfriend’s two and a half year old niece Molly interacts with the CD player in her home. I will describe how effective she is at using the CD player on her own, and when she needs or asks for the help of others. This research will be useful if I implement my initial project idea of “Kid TV.” This project entails creating a software application which a young child could use on a touch-screen device, or by using a mouse on the computer. The application would have large icon buttons with pictures representing the child’s favorite movies or TV channels. When the child presses one of the buttons, the corresponding DVD or cable channel appears on the TV screen. The child would also have the ability to press a stop button to stop the current program, and return to the main menu of large icon buttons.

During a recent visit to Molly’s house, I had the opportunity to watch her interact with her personal CD player. She is very independent when it comes to using the CD player. It is a small, pink boom box style CD player which is situated on the floor of her playroom. She has a small zipped up CD container which holds about 10 of her favorite CDs. When she wanted to use the CD player, she asked where her CD case was. I didn’t know where it was, but her mother found it for her, and gave it to her. Molly took out one of her CDs, opened the CD compartment, put the CD in correctly, and closed the CD compartment. Then, she pressed the play button, which is a purple button that is round and protrudes from the boom box surface. The CD started playing, and Molly enjoyed the music. This was evident by her smiling and dancing. She turned the large volume knob to increase the volume close to the maximum.

Near the end of the first song, Molly ran away into the other room, where some other people were talking. She continued to come back to the CD player to enjoy the music, and then go to the other room several times during the next few songs. At one point the CD skipped and repeated, and Molly said the words “skip.” Evidently, she had learned that word from her mother. I don’t think Molly knew how to move to the next track on the CD, because the CD player was skipping for over a half minute, and she did not do anything. Finally, I moved the CD to the next track by pressing the next button. Later, when another song also skipped, I did the same thing. A little while later, when Molly wanted to change the CD, she simply opened the CD hatch, and put in a new CD. I noticed that she did not stop the current CD from playing before opening the hatch.

What I learned from watching Molly use the CD player is that if trained over time, she can be self-sufficient at using the CD player by herself. She does not understand how to use the complete functionality of all the buttons on the CD player. Her range of skills includes putting a new CD into the player, playing the CD, changing the volume, and changing the CD. This is enough functionality for her to enjoy listening to CDs from start to finish. She could learn more functionality, such as skipping to the next track. This can be helpful when the CD player skips. This also can be helpful when she doesn’t like one track on the CD. Also, it would probably be good for her to learn to press the stop button before she changes CDs.

I think it is easier for Molly to remember how to use the play button and the volume knob because they are larger than the other buttons, and they both protrude much more from the boom box surface. The stop button, next button, and back button are smaller and close to each other. They are not designed in an intuitive way for a child to understand their purpose. The next button is a small button on the top of the CD player. The next button is situated next to the stop button and the back button. Below the next button, there appears the text “next” and an arrow facing to the left. Similarly, below the “back” button, there appears the text “back” and an arrow facing to the right. Under the “stop” button, there appears the text “stop” and a filled in square.

It is also possible that there is a limit to how many CD player functions Molly can memorize. These findings are somewhat confirmed when I asked Molly about the next button. I showed her how to press the button, and said “next.” She also pressed the next button, and she noticed when a new song was played. But later, when the CD player skipped she did not do anything. Also, when a song finished that she really liked, she said “again”, intending for me to play it again for her. She did not know how to do it.

The findings from this observational study are useful for designing interfaces for use by young children. There should be a small number of knobs, say 2 or 3, whose function the child has to remember. These knobs should be distinguishable from each other by their physical appearance. Also, the application should be designed such that it can be used and enjoyed by only knowing how to use these 2 to 3 distinguishable knobs. If the design requires memorizing too much information, I do not think a young child can be expected to use it properly.