Designing the User Interface for Children

Interface design for children is a lot more complex than design for adults. According to an interview with Madelon Evers of Human Shareware, children are different than adults because in general children are much more critical and have no patience. Children tend to not read instructions and become trigger happy with navigational tools. A simple direct access design approach would best benefit an interface targeted for children. Children benefit best when they can keep the navigation simple and visual. Buttons and lists are not a wise choice when designing for a child. By having the child return to a home page to navigate you can leave out any confusion. Children also tend to like realism. Oftentimes adults, and especially designers, underestimate children and their intelligence. Just because they are young doesn't mean they want to constantly be associated with cartoons or simple design.

When designing for a child, however, it is best to keep font selections to a minimum and use bold thick text for headings and subheadings. Adding a "Back to Home/Menu" icon on each page would be a great idea. You could also incorporate breadcrumbs to allow the child to navigate back one page or more if they choose. Breadcrumbs are an easy navigational tool for the user. They have the ability to know exactly where they are on your product. Breadcrumbs frequently look like Home > Section One > Section Two > Item.