Latitude

Latitude and ReadWriteWeb recently published a 2-part results series on our open innovation study, “Children’s ‘Future Requests’ for Computers and the Internet,” which asked kids 6-12 years of age to ideate future Web technology concepts.

Latitude created this video to sum up the study’s key findings and big pathways for research, innovation, and the future of the Web:

Latitude 42 Study Findings: Where Else Will Kids Think to Put the Web in the World? from latddotcom on Vimeo.

Download a PDF of the study summary, and check out the blogged results discussion:

1. “Kids Innovation Study Results, Part 1: Web in the Physical World”
2. “Kids Innovation Study Results, Part 2: Creation, Design & Digital Optimism”

The results discussion focused on the myriad ways in which kids are bringing digital into the physical world—to enhance interactions with everyday objects, spaces, and social activities. As the study’s lead analyst, Jessica Reinis, summed things up:

“Currently, we have the ‘iGeneration’ understanding of device as simply an extension of oneself—and we still think that’s pretty novel. But kids are showing us that the next step will be exactly the converse of that. It’ll be a shift from smartphones that can go anywhere to The Internet of Things which is everywhere.”

If there was any doubt that children are excellent innovators, some recent technology developments are corroborating kids’ projections into the digital future. For example, MIT’s Fluid Interfaces Group is working on a “food printer” that realizes a concept submitted by one of our study participants:

I’d like it if my computer could convert images or food and make them real.” — Joanna*, Age 10

Of course, MIT got a bit more sophisticated with its prototypes, but we were heartily impressed with the predictive power of our 6-12 year-old innovators:

“Each one [of the three concept designs] addresses a fundamental process that lies at the heart of cooking, namely the mixing of ingredients; the physical and chemical transformation of these ingredients into new compounds; and finally their modeling into aesthetically pleasing and delectable textures and shapes. Our hope is that these designs will provide a glimpse at the new aesthetic and cultural possibilities, which can be brought forth by a new, digital gastronomy.”

“Cornucopia: Concept Designs for a Digital Gastronomy,” MIT Media Lab

Latitude currently has other initiatives underway to extend its future technology ideation research with kids, including a “phase 2″ of the current study. This iteration will also include children from across the globe; however, it will place a more concentrated focus on children in specific regions, including Latin America, Asia, and Africa. The aim of this second study is to investigate cross-cultural similarities and differences, and to tap into more diverse perspectives on Web-based innovation. (Check life-connected.com in the coming weeks for study-related news.)

*Name has been changed to protect the participant’s privacy.

This entry has been cross-posted to ReadWriteWeb.

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Latitude is an international research consultancy exploring how new information and communications technologies can enhance human experiences. Latitude’s user-centered research approach unites generative, media-based methods with robust quantitative analysis to identify concrete opportunities for Web-based innovation. “Children’s ‘Future Requests’ for Computers and the Internet” is one installment of Latitude 42s, an ongoing series of open innovation research studies which Latitude publishes in the spirit of knowledge-sharing and opportunity discovery. For more information on this study and its applications to your business, email Neela Sakaria.

Video created in collaboration with designomotion.

This is part 2 of the study results discussion.
Part 1: “Kids Innovation Study Results, Part 1: Web in the Physical World.”
Download a 3-page PDF summary of study results.

Yesterday, we posted part 1 of the findings for “Children’s Future Requests for Computers and the Internet,” an open innovation study by Latitude and ReadWriteWeb asking children (aged 12 and under) to illustrate their ideas for new Web and computer technologies.

In our previous post, we looked at the study findings from an interaction angle. We discussed how younger generations expect to have increasingly more intuitive interactions with technology—and, not just localized to swiping and tapping an iPad, but really moving things out in the world of physical activity and objects. This represents “a shift from smartphones that can go anywhere to The Internet of Things which is everywhere,” explained Jessica Reinis, the analyst who headed up the study.

Today’s post will focus on a few other themes that stood out in the kids’ “future requests” for technology and why we think they’re worth acknowledging in the big picture.

Confidence Through Creation and Creativity

Study participant, Dylan (Age 6), killing time on his visit to Latitude HQ.

It’s no surprise that gaming is popular with kids. But creation and design? Yep—unsung favorites. 31% of technology ideas proposed by children were a tool or platform for creating something (a Web site, a game, a video to be shared, a physical object, etc.). “Artistic creation and design were common underlying principles for a large subset of the kids’ technology concepts, with truly incredible diversity across disciplines. Kids wanted to be 3-D game designers, Web designers, fashion designers, landscape designers, industrial designers, musicians, ‘traditional’ artists—and then, of course, the study itself was an exercise in imaginative creation,” adds Reinis.

“I’d like to paint and draw right on the computer screen and have it show up.” — Abby*, Age 8

“I’d like to make up my own video game.” — Zack, Age 8

“I’d like computer games to learn about fashion designing.” — Klara*, Age 11

Per usual, MIT’s Media Lab is doing great things: this time, they’re providing the tech infrastructure to help kids create. They devised a simple language called Scratch that kids (aged 8 and older) can use to make interactive animations, annotated stories, games, music and art. Through an external sensor kit, media created using Scratch can interact with everyday objects such as pencils or water. This study suggests there’s more opportunities to build and extend environments like Scratch (especially ones that are conversant with the physical world) as children’s offerings. (And, of course, when given these types of generative tools for ideation purposes, kids can contribute real value to innovation processes.)

Interestingly, kids’ drive to create—and the expectation that technology will assist creative expression—was highly under-acknowledged by parents. When we asked participants’ parents outright what their children’s favorite computer activities were, only 7% chose some form of creation or design as an option while, not surprisingly, 70% selected gaming. By contrast, children’s own inventions revealed artistic design as a close second to gaming.

Selection of themes coded in children’s drawings (n=126)

The Social World is Growing and Shrinking?

Social networking was especially popular amongst 10-12 year-olds, who contributed 56% of all socially-enabling innovations. What’s more, some participants expressed a desire to expand their social spheres beyond family and friends; they wanted to meet children in far-distant locales (e.g. remotely through immersive “chat” environments).

“I want to video kids on the other side of the world using a different kind of language.” — Emma, Age 7

“Continuous connectivity to people and information via the Web is the norm for many kids today, and it seems to be making them feel more capable and independent—making life opportunities feel closer at hand,” explains Reinis. They can look up any piece of information on Wikipedia in real-time, they can self-learn with sophisticated, interactive games, and they can even video-chat international language partners on Skype for free—and many of them want to do these things.

“We see this drive to experience the world at large and the drive to express oneself in it as symptoms of a much larger phenomenon—a special brand of confidence—which we’re calling ‘digital optimism,’” she adds. For kids today, the world, ironically, feels smaller and more accessible—just as their awareness of its size, diversity, and possibility is increasing.

*Some names have been changed to protect the participants’ privacy. In select cases, participant drawings may be modified solely for the purposes of removing identifying information (e.g. the participant’s name).

This entry has been cross-posted to ReadWriteWeb.

Latitude is an international research consultancy exploring how new information and communications technologies can enhance human experiences. Latitude’s user-centered research approach unites generative, media-based methods with robust quantitative analysis to identify concrete opportunities for Web-based innovation. “Children’s ‘Future Requests’ for Computers and the Internet” is one installment of Latitude 42s, an ongoing series of open innovation research studies which Latitude publishes in the spirit of knowledge-sharing and opportunity discovery. For more information on this study and its applications to your business, email Neela Sakaria.

Header image courtesy of aperturismo’s flickr, (cc) some rights reserved.

This is part 1 of the study results discussion.
Part 2: “Kids Innovation Study Results, Part 2: Creation, Design & Digital Optimism.”
Download a 3-page PDF summary of study results.

If we were to ask you to name one thing you wish your computer (or another Web-enabled device) could do, but doesn’t now, what would you say? Daniela* told us that she’d like to be able to “touch the things that are in the screen, to feel and move them.” Daniela is 7 years old.

Matthew, 6, wishes he could play 3-D games on his computer, and Jenna, 7, would like a solar-powered laptop. Cristina, 12, thinks it’d be great to “travel” more: to experience new, far-away places with the help of virtual reality.

“Future computers” — Natalie, Age 10

Understanding that kids are excellent innovators, Latitude Research in conjunction with ReadWriteWeb, recently conducted a study asking children to ideate concepts for new computer and Web technologies—and the results are in!

While it’s not too surprising that kids today think about digital technologies (and the experiences they enable) as a given, the study found that kids desire increasingly immersive content experiences, better integration of digital technology into physical objects, spaces and activities, and more intuitive interfaces (37% of participants’ creations didn’t even bother with the traditional keyboard/mouse interface). What’s more, our participants’ ideas weren’t just forward-thinking; they were also surprisingly down-to-earth, with only 4% of kids’ “future requests” being impossible demands for today’s developers (e.g. time-travel, teleportation, etc.).

“We chose to use kids for this study because they’re closer to the problem at hand—closer to their core desires,” remarked Jessica Reinis, an analyst at Latitude who headed up the study. “They’re not thinking within the confines of current market offerings or in terms of routine life situations; they’re thinking about what they’d like to do right now, without regard to what’s possible or what would be popular with other people. Those are questions that we explore more in adult innovation studies like The New Sharing Economy, but kids are able to tap into a more basic creativity that’s great for ideating on really broad questions like this.”

Kids today have different experiences with technology during a critical learning period than present adults did, which means they also have different understandings about what it can and should do. “Kids will figure out how to use whatever they get in front of, and that will become the framework inside of which they experience, critique, and create everything else,” explained Geoff Barnes, Director of User Experience at Elliance. “I think that kids’ visions into what the future of technology will look like are highly collaborative with present-day, actual paradigm shifts, like the interaction paradigm shift of multi-touch.”

“The computer becomes 3-dimensional and, instead of a keyboard, it’s controlled by voice.” — Aisling, Age 11

Study Background

Study participants were 126 children, aged 12 and under, from across the globe. Here’s what we asked them:

“What would be really interesting or fun to do on your computer or the Internet that your computer can’t do right now? Please draw a picture of what this activity looks like.”

Parents told us some basic facts about their child’s Internet usage and technology exposure, along with household demographic information, and submitted their child’s drawing.

Screenshot of participant drawings in a Web application (part of Latitude’s Lumière Suite) which allows users to contribute and interact with visual input in a behavioral environment.

Latitude coded each of these images (future technology ideas) for common themes, then analyzed them in aggregate. (Some examples of broad themes included: interest area, interface characteristics, degree of interactivity, physical-digital convergence, user’s desired end-goal, social connectivity, etc.)

Study Findings: Digitize the Offline World

38% of children’s innovations called for more immersive content experiences than are commonly available now, with features like 3-D effects (10% of all submissions incorporated 3-D) or seamless integration of digital technology into the physical world. In many cases, devices could create physical objects such as food or facilitate physical activities such as playing a sport.

“I’d like it if my computer could convert images or food and make them real.” — Joanna, Age 10

These requests don’t seem too radical if you’ve ever encountered MIT’s SixthSense technology, which transposes digital information onto everyday, physical surroundings, and relies on more instinctive, gestural interactions:

Playing “digital” pong on the Boston subway with SixthSense.

For kids today, true synchrony between physical and digital worlds is becoming an expectation rather than a novelty. And the demand for it is expanding beyond the realm of visual media. “Currently, we have the ‘iGeneration’ understanding of device as simply an extension of oneself—and we still think that’s pretty novel,” said Reinis. “But kids are showing us that the next step with be exactly the converse of that. It’ll be a shift from smartphones that can go anywhere to The Internet of Things which is everywhere.” There may be openings to apply mobile RFID/sensors, or even something like Stickybits (which allow people to attach digital content to real-world objects) to register and socialize offline activities through smarter device interactions. HopeLab is currently developing gDitty, a wearable device for kids that records and converts physical activity to points which can be redeemed for “virtual goods and real-world rewards, including customizable avatars, gift cards, even the opportunity to make a donation to a cause.”

Regardless of physical world integration, the vast majority of participants (83%) desired technologies capable of highly intuitive interaction. They requested responsive virtual environments, 3-D games, “homework help” computers, telepathy as a form of device input (4% of all submissions), etc.

“Virtual mind-reading games” — Mark, Age 12

Future Request: Content Interaction (vs. Device Interaction)

Kids are already thinking about 3-D effects for in-home gaming and media viewing, an offering which is just beginning to hit the market as 3-D-enabled TVs. This anticipation of the near-future suggests that visually immersive features alone won’t satisfy any audience for long. “We’ve been investigating a number of emergent media trends and this big idea always comes through; essentially, that users are, more and more, desiring additional ways and means to interact with content—to interact with it and to personalize it,” explained Reinis, who has worked on 3-D studies recently and specializes in interactive advertising research at Latitude.

Kids today approach technology with matter-of-course acceptance—and greater expectations. “It took my 7 year-old son, Alex, under 10 seconds to figure out how to turn it on and unlock the iPad’s screen, and no time whatsoever to understand that touching icons launched apps. Or that swiping the screen controlled pagination. Or that pivoting the screen revealed different data presentations,” wrote Barnes in a recent blog post. “I’m hard-pressed to envision his generation entering college and enrolling in required courses with names like ‘Introduction to Computing,’ to learn about file systems, Microsoft Office, the worldwide web, and email. As I watch Alex, in fact, the idea is as nonsensical to me as offering college courses on how to read an arrow. It’s become that obvious.”

So what might next-generation interaction be like? Based on study findings, it seems that, eventually, each user will crave the ability to architect his or her own content experience: to step into it, to interact with characters, to add and remove plot constraints—ultimately, to alter the course of future events. It would mean the difference between interacting peripherally with a technology, and interacting with the actual story being told through the device.

*Some names have been changed to protect the participants’ privacy.

This entry has been cross-posted to ReadWriteWeb.

Latitude is an international research consultancy exploring how new information and communications technologies can enhance human experiences. Latitude’s user-centered research approach unites generative, media-based methods with robust quantitative analysis to identify concrete opportunities for Web-based innovation. “Children’s ‘Future Requests’ for Computers and the Internet” is one installment of Latitude 42s, an ongoing series of open innovation research studies which Latitude publishes in the spirit of knowledge-sharing and opportunity discovery. For more information on this study and its applications to your business, email Neela Sakaria.

Header image courtesy of busbong’s flickr, (cc) some rights reserved; body image courtesy of Pranav Mistry/TED.

“Advances in science and technology can launch from unassuming springboards,” says a recent article in Scientific American, chronicling how brilliant thinkers “reached back to childhood to help them develop tiny transistors, study particle separation, make microfluidics devices, and fight cancer.” (More specifically, they reached for Etch A Sketch, Legos, Shrinky Dinks, and balloons.)

The modern era is intrigued by the possibility of finding answers in unexpected places. In fact, the allure of genius ex machina has gone so far as to revolutionize corporate innovation processes at large; they now accommodate—nay, solicit—user input.

Dave Stanton leads an SxSW session: “My Three-Year Old is my Usability Expert.”

Recently, PayPal’s Developer Challenge crowdsourced ideas for better integrating payment into developers’ own applications. And last year, Netflix awarded $1 million to the team that improved its recommendation algorithm by more than 10%. (Over 50,000 contestants entered the challenge.)

With so much impetus behind technological advancements, some innovative minds—particularly in the areas of design and usability—are looking back to a kind of vintage simplicity in distilling the problem and solution principles underlying their creations.

Last month at SxSW, Dave Stanton, a cognitive researcher and Technology Fellow at The Poynter Institute ran a session entitled: “My Three-Year Old is my Usability Expert.”

In certain contexts, children’s natural limitations turn to strengths. “Children are terrific UI testers because they haven’t developed the language necessary to parse text instructions; they have to rely on visual cues,” explains Stanton. “Children can help us balance intuitive interfaces with the domain-specific attributes designers use to convey personality.”

SXSW2010 – My 3-year-old daughter is my usability expert from Dave Stanton on Vimeo.

Young children adopt a fundamentally different approach to technology. We can see this at work in simple ways—in the toddler who, accustomed to her mother’s iPhone, instinctively approaches a laptop by swiping a finger across it. “We are moving toward more naturalistic interfaces utilizing feel, sound and sight for both user input and device feedback,” describes Stanton. “I’m excited to see the elegant modes of human-computer interaction we can uncover by studying how children leverage these mechanisms in problem-solving scenarios.”

In conjunction with ReadWriteWeb, Latitude Research is taking children’s unique approach to technology one step further. “This project is a step toward understanding how children can help us generate abstract solutions with potential real-world applications,” Stanton says.

As part of an open innovation study (whose lead analyst is Jessica Reinis), we’re asking kids, age 12 and under, to create ideas for future Web technologies (or, more likely, to demonstrate the underlying, creative-thinking principles which beget these types of innovations) by drawing the answer to a simple question:

What would be really fun or interesting to do on your computer or the Internet that you can’t do right now?

To participate in the study, click here.

(Latitude’s open innovation privacy policy is available here.)

“The difference between today’s children and yesterday’s was what technologies were available to them as they tried to make sense of the world around them,” said ethnographer and social media researcher danah boyd, when we asked her how pervasive digital culture might be affecting younger generations. “But youth accept whatever contemporary technology is available and try to see if it makes sense in their lives. Adults are the ones who have to shift their understanding of the world based on technology.” Naturally, we’re interested to see how Web solutions can be informed by more technologically “intuitive” sensibilities when child becomes creator.

This entry has been cross-posted to ReadWriteWeb.

Latitude is an international research consultancy exploring how Web technologies can further enhance human experiences. By uniting classic and people-centered research approaches, we help clients discover new opportunities through Web-based innovation. Visit life-connected.com for other Latitude studies or email ischulte@latd.com to learn more about working with Latitude.

Header image courtesy of aperturismo, (cc) some rights reserved; body image courtesy of cell911, used with permission.

If you have a child who is age 12 or younger, we invite you to participate in the study. Click here to begin.

(We’re very conscious of privacy on the Internet, so please regard the notice on the instruction screen.)

Latitude Partners with ReadWriteWeb

Yesterday, we co-launched a Latitude 42 study with ReadWriteWeb, one of the world’s top 20 blogs; ReadWriteWeb speaks to an intelligent audience of web enthusiasts, early adopters and innovators, and is syndicated by the New York Times.

Children’s “Future Requests” for Computers & the Internet

The study utilizes children’s underlying thinking ability and creativity (unfettered by the practical constraints of what seems practical or possible), asking them to innovate on current Web technologies.

What would be really interesting or fun to do on your computer/the Internet that your computer can’t do right now? Please draw a picture of what this activity looks like.

With a bit of creative insight on the analytical side, we plan to extrapolate real-world opportunities for the Web technology sphere from the ideas that children generate (represented visually, as drawings) around expressed needs or desires. The study should shed light on potential innovations for audiences beyond merely the younger demographic.

We’ll be posting results on both ReadWriteWeb and life-connected.com in the coming weeks.

Technologies Used in This Study

Latitude developed Kaleidoscope as an interactive, generative research tool that allows participants to respond to directed research questions by uploading images and entering textual explanations regarding their choices. Respondents can interact with the entire set of uploaded images, providing behavioral data about interactions with other users’ contributions.

Kaleidoscope is a tool for directed idea generation; it is a Web application which allows user to contribute and interact with creative input in a behavioral environment.

Below is a screenshot of Kaleidoscope:

If you have a child who is age 12 or under and would like to experience Kaleidoscope—with the ability to view other users’ contributions to the study—click here to participate.

A limited amount of entered information is available for public viewing. Read Kaleidoscope’s privacy notice to understand what’s public and what’s not.

Latitude is a research-driven consultancy for technology and media companies. We work with clients to discover and develop opportunities for next-generation content, software, and communications technologies through a combination of Web-based applications and innovative research methods. Email ischulte@latd.com to learn more about working with Latitude.

Header image courtesy of diegocupolo’s flickr, (cc) some rights reserved.

Researchers theorize that the ever-accelerating pace of technological change may be minting a series of mini-generation gaps, with each group of children uniquely influenced by the tech tools available in their formative stages of development.

New York Times, “The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s”

Children as Active Users

The majority of content written about children and information psychology conceives of them as passive entities—describing how new connectivity and heavy media interaction is affecting them. (How do we monitor kids’ Web activity? Is it making them overweight? Unhappy? Unsuccessful in school?)

Instead, Latitude’s 42: Children’s Future Requests for Computers and the Internet, is interested in the unique perspective that children bring to the realm of innovation as active thinkers.

“It’s certainly no longer true that kids are just blindly consuming what commercial culture has to offer.”

One obvious result is that younger generations are going to have some very peculiar and unique expectations about the world.

New York Times, “The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s”

Tech’s “Critical Period”

A 2006 study by Zheng Yan found that age was a significant factor in children’s objective, “top-down” understanding of how the Internet works as a technical and social system (even most adults never reach the “scientific” level).

But, as the study only examined one cohort of children, it left off asking: “How do children learn and understand concepts that are newly emerged and highly complex?”

“My 3-year-old has become so accustomed to her father’s multi-touch iPhone screen that she approaches laptops by swiping her fingers across the screen, expecting a reaction.”

There’s evidence to support that, like language-learning, there may be a “critical period” or optimal stage of life (in childhood) during which some skills and concepts can take hold with more “fluency” than when acquired at later stages of life. Because technology, digital interactivity, and the psychology of new connectivity are so fast-evolving, younger generations may be uniquely positioned to understand these concepts, if primarily through intuition.

What are the Differences Across Mini-Generation Gaps?

A recent study by Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that kids (8-18) spend about two hours per day interacting with media on their mobile phones (and another hour viewing “old” content, like television programs, via newer mediums such as Hulu and iTunes).

The technology and interaction expectations for children today (dubbed “the iGeneration,” by one NYT article) include real-timeness, altered notions of community and geography, and, increasingly, interoperability across devices / device-agnostic content, as well as touch-screen/gestural interfaces—to name just a few.

If these standards are intuitable to children even just a “mini-generation gap” shy of millenials, it’s conceivable that their vision into the future spans further, even if it’s not well-articulated or concretely imagined.

Latitude 42: Children’s Future Requests for Computers & the Internet

To extrapolate real business opportunities from children’s creativity and their unique relationship to technology, Latitude is asking children to create visual representations (drawings) of something they’d like to do on their computers/the Internet, but can’t right now, as a structured problem-solving exercise. With some creativity, acumen, and analytical rigor of our own, we’ll extract some practical applications from the visual submissions (in tandem with a brief survey).

What would be really interesting or fun to do on your computer/the Internet that your computer can’t do right now? Please draw a picture of what this activity looks like.

To request participation, please send a brief email to innovation@latd.com.

Learn more about Latitude 42: Children’s Future Request for Computers & the Internet.

Header image courtesy of ciadefoto’s flickr, (cc) some rights reserved.