Designing a personal web application for children: personal web template / Noor Azyanti Abu Bakar

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in creating web page among children. They are entering into the virtual communication environment to present their personality online over the world. However, there is none available template for novice users particularly for children in creating the web page. Most of the web applications available are developed by adults and based on developers' assumptions about children's skills and preferences which might be one of the contributing factors towards children difficulties in creating their own web page. As a result, the applications may not be easily learned and used by them who have very limited knowledge in web skill development. This research focuses on children's preferences in the web application and process of creating the web page using the template. The application applied the HCI Principles and Guidelines for children in order to suit with their preferences. The methods used in gathering the requirements were online reading on the HCI Principles and Guidelines and interview sessions with children to acquire their preferences. At the end of this research, a prototype of user interface design for children in creating the web page has been developed. The interface had been evaluated using the Heuristics Evaluation and Field Studies. This research will provide a better application for children in helping them creating their own personal web page by using the template. Besides that, it will create the awareness of good user interface design for them not to focus on the expert users but also for the novice users like children.