Week one’s portfolio project is FINALLY over and already we’ve been given more work. They sure keep us busy here at school. (I love it.) We now have to continue the development of our site by creating three personas and developing our site around these people. We have to interview 3 teachers, 3 students and 3 other people outside of school.
Since my website is already going to prioritize people like my teachers and schoolmates, I decided to interview children as my ‘3 other people.’
A lot of my work and tastes are influenced by experiences I had when I was around eight years old. Taking into account what children of this age like could be useful in designing my website. It is around the age of ten that children begin to develop their own personal tastes in things, so looking at what they like now might be a good indicator of what they well like in future. This is only a theory, so could be proven untrue. At any rate, I can at least have nostalgia-appeal.
Lucky for me, yesterday was my brother’s 10th birthday party and he invited lots of 8-10 year old test subjects for me. These boys would be better to interview than girls, because my tastes are more like that of little boys than girls. (No offense, every single girl at the HKU!) All of them where gamers and we were going to go lazergaming later that day, so these guys where obviously cool people. Another point to make is that these boys are either Dutch or go to a Dutch school. They are also all friends.
Interview questions where difficult to plan, because they couldn’t be too complicated, yet give me some useful information. Here are the results:
Interview 1
What’s your name?
Wouter te Pas
How old are you?
8
What three colours do you think are pretty?
Black, red, blue
What games do you think are cool?
Wii games. My favorite is De Blob.
What websites do you think are cool?
Debbo Hotel, Habbo Hotel.
Why do you think those sites are cool?
You can meet other people and beat them.
Interview 2
What’s your name?
Tom Heady-Carroll
How old are you?
10
What three colours do you think are pretty?
Red, Purple, Blue
What games do you think are cool?
Godzilla Save the Earth, Lego Starwars, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi
What websites do you think are cool?
Lego.com, Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers
Why do you think those sites are cool?
They’re just really fun. I can play games with my favorite characters in them.
Interview 3
What’s your name?
Floris Koning
How old are you?
8
What three colours do you think are pretty?
Red, Black, Blue
What games do you think are cool?
Starwars games, Habbo Hotel and Call of Duty, Skull-Kid
What websites do you think are cool?
Spelen.nl, Speeleiland.nl, YouTube,Mondo Mini Shows
Why do you think those sites are cool?
They are aggressive and have fights in them, which is cool.
Interview 4
What’s your name?
Jeroen te Pas
How old are you?
10
What three colours do you think are pretty?
Red, Black, Blue
What games do you think are cool?
Habbo Hotel, Debbo Hotel, Zwaarden en Sandalen
What websites do you think are cool?
Habbo Hotel, Debbo Hotel, Speeleiland
Why do you think those sites are cool?
You can buy things and play things.
Something immediately apparent is how much these guys like red black and blue. All of them listed these three colours, with the exception of Tom who picked purple over black. Since these kinds of colours appeal to ten year old gamers, it might be worth using these colours in my site.
Knowing which sites they like means I can look at these sites for inspiration. Most of them visit Dutch game-portals, like Speeleiland.nl and Spelen.nl. (This is also where mosty of their favorite games can be found. I think this is because most of these kids are too young to have their own consoles.) These are among the first sites listed when the word ‘Spelen’ is Googled, which highlights how important it is to have your site listed first. These kids are pretty young, so chances are that their parents found these sites for them. When marketing to children of such an age, it should be taken into account that parents will more often than not govern what their children play. If you have a site with chainsaws and guns on the front page, the parents will be less likely to show the site to their children. (These can be on other pages. ;P)
Another powerful force is kids telling each other about sites. Floris, who is one of the older boys I interviewed, has explored the internet on his own and discovered more conventionally cool things: violent entertainment, such as Happy Tree Friends. I remember being introduced to Happy Tree-Friends through friends in the computer lab when we were supposed to be doing homework when I was ten. I expect Floris’ introduction was similar. Another example of the power of friends and community is the popularity of Habbo Hotel and Debbo Hotel. Communication through the internet has a unique novelty to kids. I’m currently working in the library and all around me I can see children playing Runescape and text-chatting to each other, even though they are sitting right next to each other.
I’m going a little off-topic now. I’m looking at site design, NOT site content. Its still interesting to know what these kid’s interests are.
This is just my first observations. Tomorrow I’m getting an introduction to portfolio 2 and should get some more information on Personas.
Since my website is already going to prioritize people like my teachers and schoolmates, I decided to interview children as my ‘3 other people.’
A lot of my work and tastes are influenced by experiences I had when I was around eight years old. Taking into account what children of this age like could be useful in designing my website. It is around the age of ten that children begin to develop their own personal tastes in things, so looking at what they like now might be a good indicator of what they well like in future. This is only a theory, so could be proven untrue. At any rate, I can at least have nostalgia-appeal.
Lucky for me, yesterday was my brother’s 10th birthday party and he invited lots of 8-10 year old test subjects for me. These boys would be better to interview than girls, because my tastes are more like that of little boys than girls. (No offense, every single girl at the HKU!) All of them where gamers and we were going to go lazergaming later that day, so these guys where obviously cool people. Another point to make is that these boys are either Dutch or go to a Dutch school. They are also all friends.
Interview questions where difficult to plan, because they couldn’t be too complicated, yet give me some useful information. Here are the results:
Interview 1
What’s your name?
Wouter te Pas
How old are you?
8
What three colours do you think are pretty?
Black, red, blue
What games do you think are cool?
Wii games. My favorite is De Blob.
What websites do you think are cool?
Debbo Hotel, Habbo Hotel.
Why do you think those sites are cool?
You can meet other people and beat them.
Interview 2
What’s your name?
Tom Heady-Carroll
How old are you?
10
What three colours do you think are pretty?
Red, Purple, Blue
What games do you think are cool?
Godzilla Save the Earth, Lego Starwars, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi
What websites do you think are cool?
Lego.com, Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers
Why do you think those sites are cool?
They’re just really fun. I can play games with my favorite characters in them.
Interview 3
What’s your name?
Floris Koning
How old are you?
8
What three colours do you think are pretty?
Red, Black, Blue
What games do you think are cool?
Starwars games, Habbo Hotel and Call of Duty, Skull-Kid
What websites do you think are cool?
Spelen.nl, Speeleiland.nl, YouTube,Mondo Mini Shows
Why do you think those sites are cool?
They are aggressive and have fights in them, which is cool.
Interview 4
What’s your name?
Jeroen te Pas
How old are you?
10
What three colours do you think are pretty?
Red, Black, Blue
What games do you think are cool?
Habbo Hotel, Debbo Hotel, Zwaarden en Sandalen
What websites do you think are cool?
Habbo Hotel, Debbo Hotel, Speeleiland
Why do you think those sites are cool?
You can buy things and play things.
Something immediately apparent is how much these guys like red black and blue. All of them listed these three colours, with the exception of Tom who picked purple over black. Since these kinds of colours appeal to ten year old gamers, it might be worth using these colours in my site.
Knowing which sites they like means I can look at these sites for inspiration. Most of them visit Dutch game-portals, like Speeleiland.nl and Spelen.nl. (This is also where mosty of their favorite games can be found. I think this is because most of these kids are too young to have their own consoles.) These are among the first sites listed when the word ‘Spelen’ is Googled, which highlights how important it is to have your site listed first. These kids are pretty young, so chances are that their parents found these sites for them. When marketing to children of such an age, it should be taken into account that parents will more often than not govern what their children play. If you have a site with chainsaws and guns on the front page, the parents will be less likely to show the site to their children. (These can be on other pages. ;P)
Another powerful force is kids telling each other about sites. Floris, who is one of the older boys I interviewed, has explored the internet on his own and discovered more conventionally cool things: violent entertainment, such as Happy Tree Friends. I remember being introduced to Happy Tree-Friends through friends in the computer lab when we were supposed to be doing homework when I was ten. I expect Floris’ introduction was similar. Another example of the power of friends and community is the popularity of Habbo Hotel and Debbo Hotel. Communication through the internet has a unique novelty to kids. I’m currently working in the library and all around me I can see children playing Runescape and text-chatting to each other, even though they are sitting right next to each other.
I’m going a little off-topic now. I’m looking at site design, NOT site content. Its still interesting to know what these kid’s interests are.
This is just my first observations. Tomorrow I’m getting an introduction to portfolio 2 and should get some more information on Personas.
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