Child-Centred Computing

Wednesday 3rd April 2013 , 6:30 pm.

Speaker: Janet Read, Child Computer Interaction Group.

Venue: Room 4.31, University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB.

Refreshments and networking from 6:00 pm.

This event is free of charge and open to all. No registration required - just turn up.

Synopsis

User-Centred Computing has a relatively long history and is widely regarded as a good approach for the design, deployment and evaluation of interactive products and systems. Where the potential user of a system is a child, the approach can be re-described as child-centred computing. This raises the question as to what is different when the user is a child and also asks whether there would be other differences in regard to centrality and method. This talk presents the author's view of child-centred computing taking examples from her work over the last five years. The talk will engage with anyone who has ever been or had a child and with anyone who has ever built, used or played with an interactive product.

About the speaker

Janet C Read is a Professor of Child Computer Interaction. Her current work includes research on the evaluation of fun with children, studies on the involvement of children and teenagers in design activities and investigations around design for teenagers especially within the context of cool. Previously she has also worked in the design of digital ink interfaces and on text input for children and adults. She has over 150 peer-reviewed papers and her work has attracted funding form local authorities, the UK research councils and the EU. She is the co-author of the best selling textbook for Child Computer Interaction and is the chair of the IFIP SIG on Interaction Design and Children