An Interactive Design Framework for Children’s Apps for Enhancing Emotional Experience

Abstract

Young children’s user experiences of educational applications (apps) can potentially support their cognitive development and improve the quality of parent–child relationships. However, to realize such potential, app designers must consider children’s emotional needs. Through a comprehensive review of the relevant literature, this paper develops an interactive design framework that can trigger three positive emotions, which is then used as a scale to conduct a design analysis of 72 apps available on the Australian and Chinese Apple App Store. We found that the interactive design scale based on emotional design is feasible; and an interactive design method that focuses on emotions affects the emotional benefits of parent–child users from apps and obtaining higher user ratings. It is thus demonstrated that paying attention to these design criteria will affect the emotional benefits young children receive from apps, thereby increasing users’ interest and support for the product. Lastly, we discuss the implications of improving the methods emotional experience and encourage future designers to bridge the gap between research and practice.