First off, there is a huge variation between what will capture and
keep the attention of infants and young children (I'm defining these
as under 3) but to make a first pass:
Large brightly colored shapes - with a preference for rounded shapes
and simple shapes (circles, ovals, rounded off rectangles, etc) and
slow movement (not glacially slow, but "lift your arm as slowly as
you can" slow) in long arcs.
Depending on how close they'll be to it, faces are desirable -- more
desirable close up. Infants also tend to like soft noises that
accompany certain motions.
As infants get older, they like things to get smaller and faster and
more identified to actual (well, stylized actual) objects (faces,
trees, balls, stars, rainbows, etc.). The paths get shorter and
straighter and the movement should get faster. Be careful at this
stage that your movements are too angular or short or you're likely
to wind up with the design equivalent of a birthday party: candy,
cake and soda and have wired 3 year olds. This is fun for nearby
adults for a much shorter period than it is fun for the kids.
Remember, newborns don't know what century it is. Three-year olds do.
It's a place to start...
Katie
On Jun 23, 2009, at 3:20 PM, Andrew Schechterman wrote:
Rob, For assumed developmentally normal infants and young children,
in our
neuropsychology research, we started with a human face (adult female,
smiling) . . . of course, this was some time ago and before Hello
Kitty,
Dragon Tales and Dora, which may be more effective 21st Century (LOL).
Sample citation, among many:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?
artid=1950440). -
Andrew
On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 6:54 AM, rob tannen
<rtan...@bresslergroup.com>wrote:
Does anyone have recommendations or references for how to design an
interface so that it draws the attention of infants and young
children (they just need to look at it, not interact).
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