By Glen Burchers
This is the third of nine posts that showcase the end-user research Freescale completed on smartbook tablets recently with the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Today’s demographic of interest is the younger user. A well documented phenomenon with the iPhone is the percentage of very young users who are being entertained. It’s become commonplace for us to see young children playing with their parents iPhone at restaurants, doctors offices or airports.
We looked at usage patterns of 8- to 10-year-old elementary school students to document how they would use a smartbook tablet. If you have a child of this age, it will come as no surprise to you that the dominant leisure activity of this age group is gaming. This is one of the target demographics for the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. Our research group interviewed 75 students ages 8 to 10 and found that this group enjoyed either handheld or console gaming for over 5 hours per day.
We also found that for this group, the Apple iPod Touch was considered a gaming device, not a music device. We asked the industrial design team at SCAD to design a tablet smartbook that would meet the needs of this group with a heavy focus on gaming. Here’s the design they came up with.
The design has an optional dock, keyboard and remote. The remote is envisioned to be similar to a Nintendo Wii remote with IR sensor usage. Since children as young as age 8 are being assigned homework that requires online access, the keyboard can be used if the homework requires some level of typing or writing online.
I’m particularly bullish about a smartbook tablet for this age group. It’s got a rugged design that can better survive the rigors of use by an 8-year-old, but it still offers access to apps, games and online flash content. At the right price, I think this one would be a winner.
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[...] with Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) earlier this year (see my first, second and third posts). Our premise is that smartbook tablets will take different shapes and forms depending on [...]
[...] not every person will want the same type of tablet for the same type of use. Previously, we’ve shown you some concept designs that indicate a variety of form [...]
[...] This idea is one that Freescale also supports and has explored through research with the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD). The first round of research completed earlier this year looked at how children ages 8 to 21 may use an optimized tablet for their desired use. The key take-away from this research was “one size does not fit all” because each age range has unique wants and needs. For example, in the 8 to 10 age range, gaming is key and would be incorporated into any design (you can read more about this research in a previous post by Glen Burchers). [...]