This button makes you go up: three-year-olds and the Nintendo controller.
Forty three-year-old children used the Nintendo controller in a simple cursor-placement task, with two different software interfaces. The directional interface required children to map specific directions of movement on to specific buttons on the controller. The non-directional interface simply advanced the cursor in a clockwise direction to the next placement location, regardless of the specific directional button pressed. Results indicate that while the youngest three-year-old children find the non-directional interface slightly easier to use, older three-year-olds are more successful with the directional interface. In addition, all three-year-olds actually experienced problems using the simpler, non-directional interface - and problems increased with age. The results are discussed with reference to designing appropriate interfaces for the wide variety of skill levels present in the pre-school population.
Strommen
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EF
Children's Television Workshop, One Lincoln Plaza, New York, NY 10023, USA.
Razavi
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S
Medoff
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LM