As mentioned in the introduction, this research project has two research questions (see Section 1.1). One practical and one technical. These are following discussed.
9.3.1 Practical Research Question
How will digital storytelling function as a tool to enlighten children about cancer upon receiving a cancer diagnosis?
To answer this research question, data gathered from health professionals and from the evaluation will be considered. All the professionals formulated in different ways that digital storytelling would be relevant due to children’s knowledge and use of technology today (see Section 4.3.3). As mentioned in Section 2.1.3, and by Straume in Section 4.3.3, getting information is one important mastering technique in difficult situations. It is said to reduce difficult emotions like uncertainty and tendencies for depression (Van Dongen-Melman et al., 1986, referenced in Fottland,2004), as well as anxiety (M. Straume, personal communication, 10th November, 2014). If the tool can help children understand the disease better, if only a little, it will be of interest.
All the children interviewed answered that they thought it was difficult to understand what cancer was when they received the diagnosis. On a question about whether they thought it would help them understand the disease better if they had been presented with a digital story like this, three of them said yes (The last one did not get the question by mistake). One of the children looked a little bit unsure, so it might have been difficult for them to know this. As there were some difficulties with the prototype, it might not have been an ideal tool at its present stage, but it could easily be further developed. As the research question is more general, and does not focuses on one specific digital storytelling application, the prototype had a purpose to provide an indication of the usefulness of such an application.
Taking on the more general perspective, all the children were somehow familiar with technology; all expressed that they used either computers or tablets. Regarding games three said they either did it often or liked it, while the oldest of them preferred other applications, like the image application Instagram. These findings do confirm to some degree the health professionals insight into children’s knowledge and use of technology
today (see Section 4.3.3). The relevance of this kind of learning tool is therefore present and clear. This is further enhanced by the fact that all the children said that they would prefer to learn about cancer from a digital storytelling/game rather than a book. In addition, one of the testers had found the book Kjemomannen Kasper (see Section 2.5.1) to be difficult and boring at a young age, and too childish at the age of 10 (see Section 8.3.2.2, paragraph: Learning). He found it humiliating when his class should learn about his disease using this book. His father thought a more modern tool, like digital storytelling, would suit the older children better.
Based on these findings it could be implied that a digital storytelling application seems to be an appropriate tool for educating children about cancer when receiving a cancer diagnosis. As the findings show that children both are familiar with this kind of technol- ogy, and prefer learning by game over learning from book, this type of technology might function well for communicating on their level. According to Bøe’s experiences, children get easily distracted and unfocused during conversations about cancer (see Section 4.3.3), so she believed a tool like this might help capture their attention. As the children all seemed focused when using the application, this could prove her point. The findings of possible user experiences like fun and engagement (see Section 8.3.2.3, paragraph: Other), may also support this. The results also show that all the children remembered and could render particularities about cancer cells to some degree. If they could re- member the information better by getting it from a digital story application than from other mediums like a book, or a conversation, can not be concluded on behalf of this study. The evaluation did not provide any feedback on this particular assumption. The possible value of the digital story application, found through this research, is therefore based on the statements by the children and the health care professionals, as well as the perception of children’s experience of the prototype.
9.3.2 Technical Research Question
How can the interaction design in a digital story application be made to optimally support intuitive interaction for children in the selected age group?
For a digital story application to be well received, the interaction design is important. There are countless ways to take in relation to design. This project used a set of de- sign principles (see Section 2.3.3) in addition to the usability goals (see Section 4.4.4)
established for the project as main guidelines for the interaction design. To answer the technical research question the findings of the evaluation will be considered. Even though the application is designed to be used by children all down to five years old, the group of testers in the laboratory were in the age rage from 12 to 14, so the answer can only speak for children in this age group.
The usability goals was highly considered throughout the development process. As they were perceived to be more vague than the design principles, it was not as straight forward to facilitate for them as with the design principles. The result of the evaluation also revealed this, as the main issues of the prototype concerned the usability goals utility and learnability (discussed in Section 9.2.2). This research therefore suggest that it is highly important to thoroughly faciliate for usability goals when designing a digital story application.
Regarding design prinsiples, findings of the evaluation show that the design principle, affordance, is critical in a digital story application. Even though the principle was taken into consideration, it was not done thoroughly enough with the clickable images. This problem area both covers the usability goal, utility, as it regards lacking functionality (Rogers et al., 2011i), and the design principle, affordance, since it concerns the lack of attributes making it intuitive to use (Norman, 1988, referenced in Rogers et al., 2011i). Clickable images should give a visual hint about them being clickable, even though the narrator in the story explains that this is the case.
The results of the usability tests also show that concreteness is important in the aspect of the usability goal, utility. Having concrete instructions on what to do, either listen or scroll, or optionally just watch (automatic scrolling) were the expressed preferences by two out of three children. Concreteness might therefore be a goal in such applications. Concreteness does, however, not necessarily mean changing the functionality as it is. It might also be supported by having a demo teaching the functionality to the children before they start going through the stories. This solution is based on the discussion of the learning curve of the scroll functionality (found in Section 9.2.2). The concreteness of them being instructed on how to use the application might be sufficient.
To answer the research question, following a combination of the general design principles presented in Rogers et al. (2011i) and design principles for children presented by Hourcade (2008), as well as thoroughly facilitating for usability goals with focus on making the
interaction as concrete and evident as possible, seems to support intuitive interaction design in digital story applications for children in the age of 12-14. These findings should, however, be further tested with all these aspects considered in the design. Other difficulties may emerge with changes done to support higher affordance and concreteness.