Kid Query: Co-designing an Application to Scaffold Query Formulation
Benjamin J Bettencourt, Maria Soledad Pera, Casey Kennington, Katherine Landau Wright, Jerry Alan Fails. 2024. “Kid Query: Co-designing an Application to Scaffold Query Formulation”. In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (IDC 2024). ACM, pp. 828-833. DOI:10.1145/3563359.3597399
Abstract
In this work, we discuss the findings emerging from co-design sessions between children ages 6 to 11 and adults, which were conducted to advance knowledge on how to best support children using well-known search tools for online information discovery. Specifically, we argue that by leveraging scaffolding, gamification techniques, and design choices via an application, it is possible to enhance children’s habits related to query formulation. Outcomes from this preliminary exploration reveal that gameplay incentives (e.g. levels, points, and other incentives like customization) are needed and effective in motivating further interaction with the application, which in turn leads to further utilization of the scaffolding needed to positively impact query formulation.