In the last post, we had submitted our paper on the MTAGIC study findings and were waiting to find out if it was accepted. Our paper, “Characterizing How Interface Complexity Affects Children’s Touchscreen Interactions”, was accepted to CHI 2016, a top conference for Human Computer Interaction! The paper focused on whether interface complexity had an effect on touch and gesture interactions. Here is the abstract:

Most touchscreen devices are not designed specifically with children in mind, and their interfaces often do not optimize interaction for children. Prior work on children and touchscreen interaction has found important patterns, but has only focused on simplified, isolated interactions, whereas most interfaces are more visually complex. We examine how interface complexity might impact children’s touchscreen interactions. We collected touch and gesture data from 30 adults and 30 children (ages 5 to 10) to look for similarities, differences, and effects of interface complexity. Interface complexity affected some touch interactions, primarily related to visual salience, and it did not affect gesture recognition. We also report general differences between children and adults. We provide design recommendations that support the design of touchscreen interfaces specifically tailored towards children of this age.

You can see the camera-ready version of the paper here and also the CHI Video Preview for our paper here. The conference will be held in San Jose, California! Alex Shaw and I will be presenting the paper at the conference! We will post the talk slides when available.