8 - "Cognitive Walkthrough" Evaluation

A - Will the users be trying to produce whatever effect the action has?

When the user selects an application by moving the slider, it accomplishes the effect the action has. We have designed a very simple application where children and parents can find it very intuitive to use and can adapt to this application very easily. We implemented a slider to correspond to this, where the user can move the slider to an application and have direct access to this without the user being located elsewhere. This has a very unlikely chance for the user to be directed to an application that is not selected.

The stylus indicates an example of effectiveness for the given action. This feature acts as a pen which allows the user to draw and select applications. At the top of the pen we have placed an eraser to assist during the colouring and drawing application to allow the user to delete and erase mistakes.

The console currently does not include an application where parents can update the console with different applications and control options associated with the application. A proposed idea put forward from us to the parents during the focus group session was to initiate a parental control device which is accessible by parents only where the different applications can be managed independently. The parents were enthusiastic on this feature so will be updated during our re-design and re-evaluation process.

B - Will users be able to notice that the correct action is available?

The physical appliances such as stylus, backward and forward buttons and the slider are all examples of tools that are obvious to the child to use.

However there are some things that the child will need to explore before understanding how it works properly. These things include the applications and how to use the touch screen to make the applications work.


C - Once users find the correct action at the interface, will they know that it is the right one for the effect they are trying to produce?

The slider proves to show that the correct action at the interface will produce what they are trying to use. For example, it is impossible for the child and parent to move the slider to an application such as drawing and end up at the colouring application. This also applies for the forward and backward buttons. This proves that the child can not be mislead into any other application.

However, when the child selects the stories and nursery rhymes application they are unaware of the length of the book and how far through the book they have gone. Hence the child does not have the ability to check their progress.

D - After the action is taken, will users understand the feedback they get?

All of the applications on the console do not have sub menus within themselves to acquire the application they want hence does not cause any complications for the user. The camera is positioned at the back of the console which can create a possibility for confusion for the child however we have incorporated an interactive demonstration to the child to illustrate how to pick up the console to take a picture and to ensure the child and parent have the ability to grasp this feature effectively. This feature has also been implemented for the drawing exercise where it shows the child to draw onto the console using the stylus.

Additionally the console will comprise of a memory limit where each application will have a certain amount of memory. This will cause problems and confusion for the child when they have reached the memory limit in the camera application as they will not be aware of what is happening. Also the current camera application does not show any indication of what to do next.

Furthermore when the drawing application is loaded and the child selects the colour in which they wish to use, there is no indication in the current drawing application of the colour they are using unless they draw onto the console.

8 - Heuristic Evaluation

1. Visibility of system status: Our system constantly keeps the user informed about where they are in the system as the slider will be in the position of the application they are currently using. We specifically used the slider in this way so that a child has a physical representation of where they are on the console.

The stories and nursery rhyme section does not do a very good job of keeping the user informed about the current page they are on. I would be useful for the application to give some sort of indication of where they are in the story and how long there is to go.

The drawing application does not indicate what colour is currently selected. If the child forgets the last colour they selected then the only way they can tell which colour is currently selected is by drawing.

The music section gives no idea to the user where they are in the particular track.

When using the camera section the screen is constantly updated with the camera’s view so the user knows it is working and what they are about to take a picture of. The device makes a click noise to let the user know they have pressed the photo button and taken a picture.

The gallery doesn’t give any indication of where you are. There could be hundreds of pages of photos but the user would have no idea.

2. Match between system and the real world: The slider includes a picture which represents each application. For example the stories section has a picture of a book so the user can easily where they need to go to get a story. The off button has the standard power symbol which the user may not be immediately familiar with. However, this will be consistent with any remote controls for TVs or other devices they have used. It won’t be long before they learn what the symbol represents.

The pen acts much like a real pencil. It draws on the screen and has a rubber on the back to rub out. The angle at which you draw with the pen also determines the thickness just like a real pencil.

The stories section reads out the stories and highlights the words as it goes it along. The user will be familiar with using a finger to guide them along words and this is effectively that. The menu which allows you to browse books is effectively the child’s book case and clicking on a book is like taking it off the shelf and opening it.

The colouring program acts just like a colouring book. It re-opens on the page you left it on just like having a heavy crease in a book. The colouring is also automatically saved. The left and right buttons change the page.

The alphabet, words and numbers section all use a green tick to indicate when they have got an answer right. This should be familiar to the user as any school work they have had marked would have probably included ticks. The console will also say “Well done!” to encourage the child. This should be a phrase they’re familiar with. Upon getting an answer wrong the device says “Try again!”. We didn’t want the device to be negative when the child gets something wrong which is why we haven’t included the obvious red cross.

The music section has piano keys just like a real piano. This way the child can relate anything they have learnt on this piano to a real world piano and vice versa.

The camera section has been split into a camera and gallery section. This then makes it just like a real digital camera which has a “record” and “play” mode. When a user takes a picture they have two on-screen buttons they can press. One is the classic green tick which represents “save” and the other is a dustbin which represents “discard”. The user will obviously be familiar with the dustbin having seen real world dustbins but if they have used the recycle bin on Microsoft Windows to delete anything it will become second nature.

The backward and forward buttons are much like many other everyday applications. A web browser has them to browse through history, Sky and cable remote controls have left and right buttons to scroll through programs or channels. The left and right buttons are used in nearly every application to scroll or change pages.

3. User control and freedom: The backwards and forwards buttons take you backwards and forwards in all applications so if you accidentally press the forward button, the backwards button can be pressed to get back. The current state of any application is auto saved so that if the user accidentally hits the slider to change mode they can put it back and end up exactly where they left off.

One problem is that if the user accidentally chooses a story they don’t want or get bored during a story and want to get back to the main menu of stories the only way they can do it is by flicking through all the pages to the end. This is a serious problem.

4. Consistency and standards: The forward and back buttons are consistent throughout all applications on the device. Each application works in a very similar way. Each application starts off where they left off. The only applications which are slightly different are the story and nursery rhyme section, the music section and the gallery section which all have a menu to select which story, piece of music, or photo they wish to use.

We have also consistently used the green tick to indicate correct answers.

5. Error prevention: Error prevention is not relevant in our system. The only time you can do something drastic by mistake is to accidentally press the bin when you have taken a photo to discard it. It could be an option to include a confirmation window here but we have intentionally left this out to keep the system as simple as possible.

6. Recognition rather than recall: The console’s slider features images which represent the various modes. These are easily recognisable images. For example a picture of a camera for the camera mode, a music note for the music mode and ‘abc’ for the alphabet mode. The user will quickly learn what each symbol represents.

The device will also speak to the user in each application to tell them what to do so for example if they forget they need to press a particular story to read it the device will say it, making recall easier.

7. Flexibility and efficiency of use: There aren’t any “expert” shortcuts for this system but there is no real way of making it any easier to get where you need to go. Some subtleties have been included such as a slight difference in colour of the backgrounds between the stories and nursery rhymes when browsing. Younger and inexperienced users won’t notice this and that doesn’t really matter. Older or more experienced users may notice this pattern and so they will have this additional information when choosing their story or nursery rhyme.

8. Aesthetic and minimalist design: The design is very minimalist and aesthetic. In fact this has often been the cause for many of the problems highlighted in this evaluation. For example, not prompting the user whether they are sure they want to discard a photo was intentional to avoid any extra dialogue.

The device also speaks directions to the user. This saves cluttering the screen with instructions with words the user may not even be able to read.

Additional instructions are presented as a welcome screen to the camera mode. This shows a picture of a child lifting up the console to demonstrate where the camera lies. The device also speaks instructions to explain this.

9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: No consideration is taken for error messages. A possible situation could be filling up the memory with photos and trying to take more. Another situation is the batteries running out. A suitable error message is required.

10. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors:

8 - Statistics

One of our team mate's mother has been very helpful in collecting these statistics for us. We did a survey with about 15 parents of our target audience. The age group ranged from 2 yrs to 6 yrs of kids at a play school. The facts those we collected were amazing and helped us a lot towards the confirmation of a good product design.

A lot of facts were collected from this survey and helped us a lot in developing the final design of the product.
Facts:
-Unique Product and would like to see more products like these in the market
-New Idea of Colour Schemes
-Colouring on a touch screen was quite an amazing feature
-Camera for kids is seen as excellent fun and play
-Foreign Languages feature would be very liked, if available
-Idea of Mathematical and numbering exercises
- Idea of Parental Control and downloading updates from web
-Idea of creating and learning music on a technology based product rather than an instrument
-Idea of using templates, editing pictures and printing them from an external device.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE RESULTS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE IN AN EXCEL FILE

7 - "Test Design on Persona3(Parents of William Worthington)"

Our last target persona is William Worthington and this is what they had to say about our product:

Child's Age: 3 years 8 months
Child's Gender: Male

"The Design"

Considering the design, would your child be physically able to…

• Hold the console (in any way)? Yes
• Hold the console using the handles? Yes
• Use the pen? Yes
• Use the buttons? Yes
• Use the camera? Yes
• Use the touch screen? Yes
• Manipulate the slider? Yes

Considering the design would your child able to grasp how the following parts work…

• The pen? Immediately / After Exploration / No
• The eraser (on the back of the pen)? Immediately / After Exploration / No
• The buttons (forward and back)? Immediately / After Exploration/ No
• The camera? Immediately / After Exploration / No
• The touch screen? Immediately / After Exploration / No
• The slider? Immediately / After Exploration / No

Keeping in mind the product will be water resistant / proof, in terms of safety do you feel you would be comfortable letting your child use it? Yes / No

If your answer was No could you please explain your answer…

How do you rate the following aspects of the design, considering them from the perspective of your child…

• General appearance Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Size Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Shape Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Weight Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent

We understand that children between 18 months and 4 years generally like bold bright colours, however, we have not been able to come up with a set colour scheme for the product yet.

Do you think that it would be best for the console to be a single set colour scheme, or a changeable / selectable one?

Set colour scheme / Changeable or Selectable

If you answered ‘Set colour scheme’, please tell us what you would like as the main colour, or describe in more detail how you would like the product to be coloured…

If you answered Changeable or Selectable, please circle which of the following you think would be the best…

• Product to come in a variety of set colours, so parents can pick the best for their child
• Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Product to have a variety of changeable colour cases
• Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Product colouration to digitally change to suit the different applications*
• Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent

* This would involve the casing of the product to be transparent, with image projecting technology beneath, like that in a plasma screen monitor, which would be able to display images that would either relate directly to the application being run by showing images, or at least show different colours for different applications

"Stories and Nursery Rhymes"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Educational 1 2 3 4 5 Very Educational
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Educational 1 2 3 4 5 Very Educational
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Difficult 1 2 3 4 5 Easy
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• We think that reading stories should be a parent's job and not have a console take that personal touch and emotional value of it.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• 
  

"Drawing and Colouring"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• I like the fact that this helps save paper. On the other hand, the screen looks quite small and can be harmful when child is viewing it continuously.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• More Colour choice would be a good idea for kids
  

"Alphabets, Words and Numbering"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Difficult 1 2 3 4 5 Easy
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• We like the fact that this product has actually got some educational value than others seen in the market.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• 
  

"Camera and Gallery"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Difficult 1 2 3 4 5 Easy
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• This seems like a good fun for kids.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• 
  

"Music and Compositions"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• We like the fact that it encourages the interest of a child in music. However, the only disadvantage could be that its not a real instrument.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• None
  

"Overall Software"

Please tell us which of the applications you consider to be the most important to the product, and what you think your child would enjoy and use most, by ordering them from 1 to 5 below, 1 meaning the most important and 5 being the least important…

Most Important to you Child's Preference

• Stories and Nursery Rhymes 5 5
• Drawing and Colouring In 2 4
• Alphabet, Words and Numbers 1 3
  
• Camera and Gallery 3 2
• Music 4 1

Do you think your child would be interested in the ability to print out pictures that the draw, colour in or take using the camera? Yes / No

Are there any other areas of your child’s education you would like to see tackled by this product? Yes, if it could have foreign languages option added to the system.

Do you have any ideas or suggestions for any further applications that you would like to see included in this product? More Educational Games which will be more fun.

"Parent Console Interaction"

Would you like to be able to fully control what difficulty levels of the applications would go onto the product? Yes / No

Would you prefer to manage what is on the console via a PC / Mac or on the console itself?
PC or Mac / On the Console

Would you feel comfortable downloading new media for the console from the internet (either through a computer or the console directly depending on your previous answer) or would you prefer it to be available via disc? Internet / Disc

How much would you value the ability to control what your child can do on the console via a remote control? This would allow you to turn the console off, control the volume and give you the ability to lock it within certain applications.

• Not Valuable 1 2 3 4 5 Very Valuable

"Conclusion"

• How would you rate the overall educational value product?
• Not Educational 1 2 3 4 5 Very Educational

• How would you rate the usability of the product for children?
• Not Usable 1 2 3 4 5 Very Usable

• How would you rate the overall entertainment appeal of the product to your child?
• Not Entertaining 1 2 3 4 5 Very Entertaining
  

• What would you value more in this product, education for your child or entertainment for your child?
  
• Educational 1 2 3 4 5 Entertaining

• What would you consider a reasonable price for this product?
• Under £30 £30-40 £40 -50 £50-60 £60 -70 £70-80 Over £80

• How interested would you be in this product?
• Not Interested 1 2 3 4 5 Very Interested

• Any Further comments? Quite Impressive!
  

William's parents were also happy with our product and they were quite impressed by the overall design of our product. They had some worries with parents spending less time with kids having products like this . However, they quite liked the idea and some features were quite appealing to them. They were glad to have William explore the product and having him to use various features like pen, eraser, buttons, slider, camera and music section especially. They are the ones who particularly mentioned about the product colouration to digitally change to suit the different applications. They would also like to see more colours or a colour palette so the kids can change it themselves in the drawing and colouring in section. They highly appreciate the educationa value of the product and seem to think its great fun along with learning. They were very amazed with the camera feature and photo gallery section and would like to have a zoom feature along with some templates in the photo gallery. They also liked highly motivated music learning and compositions. Although they think its not a real instrument but really encourages a child to develop keen interest in music. They would also like to see foreign languages implemented in our product so the kids can learn another langauge in an entertaining way. They really liked our software applications and would like to see more educational games incorporated in the console. They were also happy to have a parent console with a website to donwload advanced levels when required.
We had a great deal to learn from this survey and are thinking of evolving our product as follows:

• Foreign Languages option
• Parent Control Console
• Templates for Photo Gallery
• Zoom in Feature for Camera
• A colour pallete in advanced version of our software applications
  

7 - "Test Design on Persona 2(Parents of Dennis Smith)"

Our second persona is Dennis Smith and this is what they had to say about product:

Child's Age: 2 years and 6 months
Child's Gender: Male

"The Design"

Considering the design, would your child be physically able to…

• Hold the console (in any way)? Yes
• Hold the console using the handles? Yes
• Use the pen? Yes
• Use the buttons? Yes
• Use the camera?Yes
• Use the touch screen? Yes
• Manipulate the slider? Yes

Considering the design would your child able to grasp how the following parts work…

• The pen? Immediately / After Exploration / No
• The eraser (on the back of the pen)? Immediately / After Exploration / No
• The buttons (forward and back)? Immediately / After Exploration/ No
• The camera? Immediately / After Exploration / No
• The touch screen? Immediately / After Exploration / No
• The slider? Immediately / After Exploration / No

Keeping in mind the product will be water resistant / proof, in terms of safety do you feel you would be comfortable letting your child use it? Yes / No

If your answer was No could you please explain your answer…

How do you rate the following aspects of the design, considering them from the perspective of your child…

• General appearance Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Size Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Shape Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Weight Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent

We understand that children between 18 months and 4 years generally like bold bright colours, however, we have not been able to come up with a set colour scheme for the product yet.

Do you think that it would be best for the console to be a single set colour scheme, or a changeable / selectable one?

Set colour scheme / Changeable or Selectable

If you answered ‘Set colour scheme’, please tell us what you would like as the main colour, or describe in more detail how you would like the product to be coloured…

None

If you answered Changeable or Selectable, please circle which of the following you think would be the best…

• Product to come in a variety of set colours, so parents can pick the best for their child
• Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Product to have a variety of changeable colour cases
• Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Product colouration to digitally change to suit the different applications*
• Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent

* This would involve the casing of the product to be transparent, with image projecting technology beneath, like that in a plasma screen monitor, which would be able to display images that would either relate directly to the application being run by showing images, or at least show different colours for different applications

"Stories and Nursery Rhymes"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
  
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Difficult 1 2 3 4 5 Very
  
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• The fact that it enables kids to learn to read and keep them busy for the kind of attention span they have.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• None
  

"Drawing and Colouring"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Difficult 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• It saves paper and buying a colouring book.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• None
  

"Alphabets, Words and Numbering"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Difficult 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• It teaches them alphabets and words although it might get a bit tedious at times.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• If you could try and make it more rewarding for kids.
  

"Camera and Gallery"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Difficult 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• Its highly entertaining and good fun.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• None
  

"Music and Compositions"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Difficult 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• It's impressive and great way to learn music.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• None
  

"Overall Software"

Please tell us which of the applications you consider to be the most important to the product, and what you think your child would enjoy and use most, by ordering them from 1 to 5 below, 1 meaning the most important and 5 being the least important…

Most Important to you Child's Preference
Most Important to you Child's Preference

• Stories and Nursery Rhymes 2 3
• Drawing and Colouring In 5 4
• Alphabet, Words and Numbers 3 5
• Camera and Gallery 4 1
• Music 1 2

Do you think your child would be interested in the ability to print out pictures that the draw, colour in or take using the camera? Yes / No

Are there any other areas of your child’s education you would like to see tackled by this product? Knowledge Games

Do you have any ideas or suggestions for any further applications that you would like to see included in this product? Quiz Games

"Parent Console Interaction"

Would you like to be able to fully control what difficulty levels of the applications would go onto the product? Yes / No

Would you prefer to manage what is on the console via a PC / Mac or on the console itself?
PC or Mac / On the Console

Would you feel comfortable downloading new media for the console from the internet (either through a computer or the console directly depending on your previous answer) or would you prefer it to be available via disc? Internet / Disc

How much would you value the ability to control what your child can do on the console via a remote control? This would allow you to turn the console off, control the volume and give you the ability to lock it within certain applications.

• Not Valuable 1 2 3 4 5 Very Valuable

"Conclusion"

• How would you rate the overall educational value product?
• Not Educational 1 2 3 4 5 Very Educational

• How would you rate the usability of the product for children?
• Not Usable 1 2 3 4 5 Very Usable

• How would you rate the overall entertainment appeal of the product to your child?
• Not Entertaining 1 2 3 4 5 Very Entertaining
  

• What would you value more in this product, education for your child or entertainment for your child?
  
• Educational 1 2 3 4 5 Entertaining

• What would you consider a reasonable price for this product?
• Under £30 £30-40 £40 -50 £50-60 £60 -70 £70-80 Over £80

• How interested would you be in this product?
• Not Interested 1 2 3 4 5 Very Interested

• Any Further comments? Its overall a nice product, different from what is available.
  

Dennis's parents quite appreciated various features that our product can offer for kids at the age group of their son. They were very impressed and thought that the hardware design was quite acceptable for their son to explore with. They think that Dennis would be able to pick up features like pen and the camera immediately and would be very keen to use them instantly. Although he may take some time in getting used to eraser, buttons, touch screen and the slider but he would absolutely love it once he gets to know about the details. They are quite comfortable in having such a well designed product and were happy to give us suggestions on minute modifications. They quite like the shape, size and weight of the product along with the software application our product had to offer them. They quite liked the fact that it had educational features like alphabets, reading along with unique feature of camera and music lessons. Overall they rated music lessons as their number 1 choice and were happy to download updates from the internet rather than having various discs. They were happy to have an additional parent control console or a section where they can actually monitor how their child is doing with great features to learn. We have learnt quite a lot from this survey and are looking forward to implement following things as a result:

• Parent Console with a website to download updates
• Changeable/Selectable Colour Scheme
• More Knowledge games
• Make it more rewarding experience for kids
  

7 - "Test Design on Persona1(Parents of Britney Jones)"

We have test driven our product with three of our target personas and found some amazing facts, which has led to further improve the design of our prospective product. This is what parents of Britney Jones, had to say:

Child's Age: 19 months
Child's Gender: Female

"The Design"

Considering the design, would your child be physically able to…

• Hold the console (in any way)? Yes
• Hold the console using the handles? Yes
• Use the pen? Yes
• Use the buttons? Yes
• Use the camera? No
• Use the touch screen? Yes
• Manipulate the slider? Yes

Considering the design would your child able to grasp how the following parts work…

• The pen? Immediately / After Exploration / No
• The eraser (on the back of the pen)? Immediately / After Exploration / No
• The buttons (forward and back)? Immediately / After Exploration/ No
• The camera? Immediately / After Exploration / No
• The touch screen? Immediately / After Exploration / No
• The slider? Immediately / After Exploration / No

Keeping in mind the product will be water resistant / proof, in terms of safety do you feel you would be comfortable letting your child use it? Yes / No

If your answer was No could you please explain your answer…

How do you rate the following aspects of the design, considering them from the perspective of your child…

• General appearance Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Size Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Shape Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Weight Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent

We understand that children between 18 months and 4 years generally like bold bright colours, however, we have not been able to come up with a set colour scheme for the product yet.

Do you think that it would be best for the console to be a single set colour scheme, or a changeable / selectable one?

Set colour scheme / Changeable or Selectable

If you answered ‘Set colour scheme’, please tell us what you would like as the main colour, or describe in more detail how you would like the product to be coloured…

We want the colour scheme to be set to Pink with butterflies.

If you answered Changeable or Selectable, please circle which of the following you think would be the best…

• Product to come in a variety of set colours, so parents can pick the best for their child
• Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Product to have a variety of changeable colour cases
• Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent
• Product colouration to digitally change to suit the different applications*
• Bad 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent

* This would involve the casing of the product to be transparent, with image projecting technology beneath, like that in a plasma screen monitor, which would be able to display images that would either relate directly to the application being run by showing images, or at least show different colours for different applications

"Stories and Nursery Rhymes"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Educational 1 2 3 4 5 Very Educational
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Educational 1 2 3 4 5 Very Educational
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Educational 1 2 3 4 5 Very Educational
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• I like the fact that the console reads the stories to my daughter.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• Cartoons and more animation films would be a good add on.
  

"Drawing and Colouring"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
  
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• I would like to add more colours to the application.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• More Colours
  

"Alphabets, Words and Numbering"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• I like the fact that console teaches spellings to the kids. It could be slightly boring for drawing kid's attention.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• 
  

"Camera and Gallery"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• It allows the child to take pictures.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• 
  

"Music and Compositions"

• How do you rate the educational value of this application for your child?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How entertaining do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• How easy to use do you think your child would find this application?
• Not 1 2 3 4 5 Very
• Please specify if there is anything in particular you like/dislike about this application…
• I like the fact that this is actually cheaper than lessons. However, it could be noisy if the child keeps on playing repeatedly.
  
• Are there any improvements / changes you think would be valuable to this application?
• 
  

"Overall Software"

Please tell us which of the applications you consider to be the most important to the product, and what you think your child would enjoy and use most, by ordering them from 1 to 5 below, 1 meaning the most important and 5 being the least important…

Most Important to you Child's Preference

• Stories and Nursery Rhymes 1 4
• Drawing and Colouring In 2 1
• Alphabet, Words and Numbers 4 5
• Camera and Gallery 3 2
  
• Music 5 3

Do you think your child would be interested in the ability to print out pictures that the draw, colour in or take using the camera? Yes / No

Are there any other areas of your child’s education you would like to see tackled by this product?

Do you have any ideas or suggestions for any further applications that you would like to see included in this product? More Games

"Parent Console Interaction"

Would you like to be able to fully control what difficulty levels of the applications would go onto the product? Yes / No

Would you prefer to manage what is on the console via a PC / Mac or on the console itself?
PC or Mac / On the Console

Would you feel comfortable downloading new media for the console from the internet (either through a computer or the console directly depending on your previous answer) or would you prefer it to be available via disc? Internet / Disc

How much would you value the ability to control what your child can do on the console via a remote control? This would allow you to turn the console off, control the volume and give you the ability to lock it within certain applications.

• Not Valuable 1 2 3 4 5 Very Valuable

"Conclusion"

• How would you rate the overall educational value product?
• Not Educational 1 2 3 4 5 Very Educational

• How would you rate the usability of the product for children?
• Not Usable 1 2 3 4 5 Very Usable

• How would you rate the overall entertainment appeal of the product to your child?
• Not Entertaining 1 2 3 4 5 Very Entertaining

• What would you value more in this product, education for your child or entertainment for your child?
  
• Educational 1 2 3 4 5 Entertainingl

• What would you consider a reasonable price for this product?
• Under £30 £30-40 £40 -50 £50-60 £60 -70 £70-80 Over £80

• How interested would you be in this product?
• Not Interested1 2 3 4 5 Very Interested

• Any Further comments? I think its amazing.
  

Although this product has fascinated Britney's parents, however we think that they are looking for an entertaining product rather than more educational at this stage at a low cost. The reasons are quite clear and one of them being the age group at which we are are targeting our product on. The survey has also revealed that kids at 19 months respond in a different manner to technology rather than to a 48 months old. Having said all this, the parents were actually quite impressed by the physical design and have no concerns having their daughter to explore our product. They were a bit apprehensive about the size and weight of the product seeing Britney's age and didn't want the changeable/selectable colour scheme on the console. They were pleased with the stories and nursery ryhme section but not as much with alphabets/numbering at this stage. The camera functionality actually quite appealed them and they also liked the colouring in section. They were not too keen on music section and thought that it could be more noisy than anything for their child to occupy with at this stage.
We have learnt various facts from this survey on our first target persona, which has helped us to re-think some of our features for this age group. We are also in the process of shifting our target age group so the idea of our educational dominant product can be more focused and be used by as many people in one targeted range.