Multi-touch gestures for pre-kindergarten children

The direct manipulation interaction style of multi-touch technology makes it the ideal mechanism for learning activities from pre-kindergarteners to adolescents. However, most commercial prekindergarten applications only support tap and drag operations. This paper investigates pre-kindergarteners&am...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Nácher Soler, Vicente Ernesto, Navarro, Elena, Catalá Bolós, Alejandro, Gonzalez, Pascual, Jaén Martínez, Francisco Javier|||0000-0002-8815-9643
Format: article
Publication Date:2015
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Repository:RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:riunet.upv.es:10251/64752
Online Access:https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/64752
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Multi-touch interaction
Gestures
Usability evaluation
Pre-kindergarten
Commercial multi-touch applications
LENGUAJES Y SISTEMAS INFORMATICOS
Description
Summary:The direct manipulation interaction style of multi-touch technology makes it the ideal mechanism for learning activities from pre-kindergarteners to adolescents. However, most commercial prekindergarten applications only support tap and drag operations. This paper investigates pre-kindergarteners' (2–3 years of age) ability to perform other gestures on multi-touch surfaces. We found that these infants could effectively perform additional gestures, such as one-finger rotation and two-finger scale up and down, just as well as basic gestures, despite gender and age differences. We also identified cognitive and precision issues that may have an impact on the performance and feasibility of several types of interaction (double tap, long press, scale down and two-finger rotation) and propose a set of design guidelines to mitigate the associated problems and help designers envision effective interaction mechanisms for this challenging age range. & 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.