Tips and methods for conducting user research with children

When creating an app or any other software product for children, one of the hardest parts of the process is conducting user research correctly. Although working with kids might seem fun and entertaining, it takes certain skills to get them engaged in testing your product and voicing their opinion so you could gather all the necessary information. It’s important to understand that mentally kids function differently than adults, so working with a young target audience requires a different approach. Treating children like adults in the UX research process can lead to serious mistakes: they might not get a proper understanding of your product and you might end up getting wrong results, only wasting your time and budget. In order to avoid that, we’ve collected a few tips below that might help you communicate with kids more effectively for a productive and fruitful research session.

1. Create a plan

Drafting a plan before engaging in an actual communication with users is a vital first step in any UX research process. It doesn't necessarily mean that you will stick to it strictly, especially since communication with children might often take unexpected turns and be a bit chaotic, but it will definitely help you to not miss any important points and get all the valuable data you need.

2. Divide participants into small groups

Managing large groups of children is not an easy task, so to make research sessions more productive it's better to divide participants into small groups of 5–10 kids and work with one group per session. Make sure each group consists of kids with various personality types, as it will help get a broader perspective on how your target audience perceives the product.

3. Provide comfortable environment

In order to hold a research session with children, it's vital to create a safe and comfortable environment. Provide your participants with chairs and desks according to their size, hand out large paper sheets, colorful pencils, snacks and water. Make them think about the research session like a fun creative experience, rather than some kind of test or exam.

4. Start with a casual conversation

Some children are naturally talkative, while others might be shy and need some encouragement to start articulating their thoughts. A casual small talk, where you ask kids about their hobbies, favorite cartoons, etc. is a great way to start the conversation and earn their trust.

5. Use storytelling and gamification

Storytelling and gamification are two great ways to incorporate children into UX research, as it both boosts their imagination and helps them stay more focused during the process. Create a story around your product, where every kid you’re interviewing plays a certain role. For gamification, you can organize some product-related activities or small competitions, use emojis to help children illustrate their emotions and hand out sweets, small gifts or stickers as encouragement prizes. If children find it hard to voice their thoughts, it might be helpful to ask them to draw, sing or even do a small dance – all that will reflect their mood and thoughts in some way or other.

6. Let them take their time

Thought process in children works more slowly than in adults, so stay patient during the research session and avoid hurrying the participants up. There will be moments when you’ll feel the urge to lead the conversation in your direction, but keep in mind that your goal here is to get insight into your potential users’ thoughts, and letting them take their course might bring more valuable results. It is also recommended to keep the session under an hour, since it is hard for children to stay focused for a longer span of time.

7. Include parents/guardians if needed

Some children, especially of a pre-school age, might not feel comfortable communicating with adults they don’t know. In that case, encourage parents or guardians to join the research session – they don’t necessarily have to join the conversation, but rather encourage their kids to do so and make them feel more safe and confident.

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Research Methods Overview

User research implies gathering information about your potential or actual users, studying their motivation, needs, behavior and other factors in order to get a picture of what they need and expect from a product you’re creating. Data collected through user research makes a great impact on your following design decisions and solutions, helping to create a product that corresponds to the users' needs and provides the best user experience possible. There are a lot of methods and ways to conduct user research depending on what exact type of information you need to gather, but usually UX designers use 5–7 most common types that help to study users thoroughly. These methods can be applied in any UX research process, including those with children.

1. User interviews
   User interviews are the most popular method of user research where data is collected by asking participants specific product-related questions and then analyzing their answers. This method is great when you need to learn about users’ personal experiences, emotions, behaviors, etc. Interviews are usually conducted one-on-one between a researcher and an interviewee in person or on a phone/video call. The most important thing here is to let responders speak freely without prompting them to give the “correct” answers, otherwise you’ll get irrelevant data.

2. Focus groups
   Focus groups imply discussing the product with a group of 5-10 users instead of conducting individual talks. This method allows users to share their thoughts on the product collectively so that the researcher could get an insight on some common complaints or expectations on the product to base some design decisions off it later. Focus groups are quite effective since it can be easier for people (especially children and teenagers) to share their thoughts in a group rather than in one-on-one talk with an interviewer.

3. Card sorting
   In card sorting, researchers give out users a set of topic cards and ask them to sort cards into groups or categories that seem logical to them. This helps define the patterns and logic behind user behavior and design the product’s architecture in a way that provides intuitive navigation for its audience.

4. Surveys
   Surveys are a common tool for gathering data by asking participants to answer some specific questions. These questions can be close-ended (with a set of answers to choose from) or open-ended (where respondents can give answers in a free-form style). The best way to conduct surveys are through online questionnaires - thus you can reach more people and gather more information

5. Usability testing
   This method is applied to let users test the beta-version of your product by completing a list of specific tasks and share their thoughts afterwards. The results can show you if your design is providing easy and intuitive navigation or whether it has some problems that should be worked on. 

6. A/B testing
   A/B testing implies creating two versions of a UX design and then asking users to test these versions by assigning them to each at random. The results can define which version is better and more favorable by users. This method can be of great help when you can't decide between two design ideas that seem equally good to you.

7. Tree testing
   Tree testing is a type of exercise when users are asked to find specific elements or functions in a product, starting from the home page, without any instructions other than hints that the design itself offers. This allows to evaluate the hierarchy of content and usability of navigation structure in a product, as well as to get more insight into how users interact with a product.

   

Conclusion

Conducting a UX research session with children might be a very interesting, but at the same time very challenging experience. Working with kids requires a totally different approach than with adults, and it’s important to keep that in mind throughout the whole session. If you put an effort into creating a safe environment, gaining the children’s trust and making the research process fun and entertaining, you will definitely manage to collect all the valuable information that will help you make your app more functional and user-oriented.