Pre-school children and touch screen tablet: An evaluation of the effects of object size and object location on the accuracy of touch performance
List of Authors
  • Hishamuddin Ismail , Liew Tze Hui

Keyword
  • Touch Screen Tablet, Catch-the-Stars, Fitts’ Law, Touch Accuracy, Object Size, Object Location, Interactive Technology, Pre-School Children

Abstract
  • This study presents the results of an experimental test on the interaction between pre-school children with an interactive technology, in this study is refer to as a mixture of 10.1” touch screen tablet and Catch-the-Stars application that pre-school children interact with in order to achieve specific tasks. The ultimate aim of this study is to investigate the accuracy of touch Performance for pre-school children interaction with the interactive technology. Child-Computer Interaction researchers found that tablets are now becoming one of the most potential tools to enhance the learning experience of Pre-School children. However, there is an insufficient investigation done on assessing the accuracy of touch performance of tablets for Pre-School children. This paper explores the impact of touch screen tablet on the effectiveness and touch accuracy for Pre-School children aged between 3 and 6 years old. In this study, the researcher has employed the Catch-the-Stars application to examine the prime pixel for pre-school children’s interaction with interactive technology. Fitt's Law was employed to evaluate the most effective region of range of targeting and touch accuracy by pre-school children’s interaction with the Catch-the-Stars application based on a tablet screen tablet. The role of the Catch-the-Stars application is to provide guidance to the practitioner, to design a pleasing and effective method for child-computer interaction especially with interactive technology. One of the most important aspects of this study is to determine the best size and position of objects distribution on the tablet screen so that the child user will enjoy the best desired action. The design objective is to arrange the objects on the screen so that the child users can move towards them or between them without excessive time and effort. The results have indicated that in child-computer interaction, age, screen size, object size and location of the targets are important factors that influence touch accuracy and the effectiveness of interaction at different coordinate on the 10.1” tablet screen. From the overall touch accuracy from the test, the study has observed that the prime pixel for the 10.1” tablet screen is located at the center coordinate of the screen.

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