Great Expectations: What do children expect from their technology?

Abstract

Children of the digital generation have expectations of technology that may or may not reflect the expectations of the adults around them. This paper explores the expectations of and attitudes towards technology of a group of young Deaf children while interacting with a computer game application. We found that the children expect seamless, intuitive behaviour from technology in part based on their existing experience with game platforms, mobile technology, and other computer games. In addition to high expectations of the technology, the children were highly adaptive to unfamiliar interfaces, tolerant of prototype deficiencies once they were familiar with the prototyping approach and could readily interact with new game elements. The challenge for developers is to create applications that harness the creativity of the digital generation and meet their high expectations. We suggest that involvement of children within the development approach will assist in meeting these goals.