How hard are Kids to work with?
Recently, I’ve been working on a project with a Primary School along with a peer to teach them the basics of Wireframing for a Recipe App. For the project, we are also using the kids as testers for our UX Design University project.
Answer: …Meh
Introduction
Whilst working with the kids and teaching them, we have developed strategies and techiques to make our lives a little easier. I’d like to share them with you.
Now before I get into things, the Kids we are working with are Aged 4–6 years old, so this may have a huge difference on the approach you take when working with kids.
Group Sizes & Adult/Kid Ratios
Before you even meet the kids, assign groups sizes. This is essential for making the children feel comfortable and be able to get value from it for both you and the children.
When working with them for our UX Design project, there was 3 Adults to around 5 or 6 Kids. This is a nice ratio to begin with for both you and the child to get comfortable and familiar. An issue we did find however, is that some kids aren’t comfortable speaking outloud to such a large audience, especially 3 Adults (Remember in class it’s between 1 or 2 Adults, very rarely 3!). We resolved this by dealing with these Kids alone on 1:1 basis between 1 Teacher and the single student.
Introductions & Names
When you meet the Children, it is essential to Introduce yourself with your first name… ALWAYS. This helps them feel comfortable straight away and makes the process a whole lot easier. I also reccommend asking for their names. Having a mental note in your head or written down on paper makes the situation a whole lot more comfortable when you can remember their first name.
We did this for both the UX Design Project and Wireframe teaching and felt this worked well in our experiences. One limitation is the difficulty of remembering names of kids that you’ve just met. A fix for this goes back to Tip #1… Small groups!
Clear Explanations & Session Outlines
Before we even begin the session, it is a good idea to Outline what they are going to be doing and explain any initial issues or worrys that the Kids may have. This reduces the risk of failure that they feel as they are confident before starting of what is expected. They weigh up if it is achievable and are more likely to try if it is clear in their Minds.
Assigning Roles
Now this tip depends on what you’re doing when working with Kids. A great way that we Implimented roles into our Project, was when creating these Digital Wireframes below. The class was split into groups of 3 that I assigned to a different task that we worked on together. For example, Group 1 worked on the Title, Subtitle/Description and the Finished Image. Then Group 2 worked on the List of Ingredients, background colour and Ingredients image.
Assigning roles works really well to motivate them to completely a specific task. The kids feel a sense of power and responsibility which they need to furfil.
Involvement
Let them Type… they Love It!
The final tip is to Involve Kids in whatever you’re doing. They hate sitting around listening to a Teacher drone on and speaking down to them. Be that cool guy role who involves them and makes things fun.
A way in which we Implimented this into our Project was to let them type the words for the recipe. They love typing on Keyboard! — What seems to us like a mundain and boring thing, turns out to be ridiculously fun for Kids. Forget XBOX’s… It’s Keyboard for Christmas 2016.
And Finally…
Working with Kids can be a challenging, but damn is it Rewarding. I hope these Tips can help you when next working with Kids.
Tom.
