A field study of understanding child's knowledge, skills and interaction towards capacitive touch technology (iPad)

This paper discusses the implementation of a case study on capacitive touch technology for a child's knowledge, skills and interaction. The case study was done with 20 children aged 8 years old in the Games Lab at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris. The objectives were (1) to identify children's knowledge about the capacitive touch technology; (2) to identify the skills (a child's sense and movement) in handling the capacitive touch technology; and (3) to identify the interaction involved between a child and the touch screen technology. For the case study, 20 iPad tablets from Apple were used. Four different types of games (with education and fun elements) were selected and played by these children. 20 research facilitators were involved in helping the researchers with every aspect of the case study, such as taking notes (for any affect expression such as vocal, facial and gestural behavior) and recording video. To facilitate the case study, an instrument was designed and used for the observation together with video records as references and additional evidence to be used in analyzing data. Findings show that (1) children have different information and understanding of the capacitive touch technology based on their experience; (2) children have different basic movements of finger when handling the capacitive touch technology; and (3) there are a significant differences and similarities in how children interact with the capacitive touch technology. To conclude, the paper will discuss how these findings can be used to tailored design any child's application involving touch-sensitive screen interactions.