Designing Digital Products for Kids by Rubens Cantuni

Author:Rubens Cantuni
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781484262870
Publisher: Apress

Menus

Menus can take so many different forms, but not all of these are suitable for children. For example, a drop-down menu requires both motor and cognitive skills beyond young kids’ capabilities. As I mentioned in the previous section on information architecture, it’s best to try keeping your menus slim, with as few options as possible, such options need to have clear affordances and be clearly separated from the background.

Top navigations and bottom navigations can work for older kids, but for younger users menus should have a central role on the home screen. These options can’t be text only; as we discussed in this chapter, younger kids can’t read yet, but also older kids might not feel so confident with written words, plus images are way more attractive for any kid. Menu options then are best served with icons or small illustrations that clearly explain what that option is about. When we talked about cognitive development, we said how hard it is for children to think abstractly and metaphorically, so literal representations of things are the best way to go.

On the Emmy-winning StoryBots iPad app (Figure 7-7), I worked on as product designer, we went through several iterations of the home screen, before landing on the final one where the menu had a very prominent role, choices were limited, IA was flat, and icons were quite expressive and animated.

Figure 7-7Home screen of the StoryBots app on iPad

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