Last Saturday I went to a party of my 11 year old nieces birthday party. She invited some of her classmates (both boys and girls) and I observed them during the day.
Some knowledge I got out of this observation:
- 11 year old girls are more grown up than 11 year old boys
- girls prefer to play social games (truth or dare, talking/gossiping, games about celebrities and talentshows)
- boys prefer to play soccer and other games
- girls of the age of 10/11 read books that are about puberty, school, holidays, animals.
Later I read an article, Ijsfontijn wrote. They researched what kind of games are interesting to play for what age. (You can read the article in Dutch here). It turned out that kids of the age of 10-12 like to improve their abilities, having control and taking desicions. Stategy-games are perfect for this age. 10-12 Year olds don't want to be looked at as children anymore. So they're not interested in reading 'children books' anymore, they want to read books for teens.
10-12 year olds like to play with a lot of other children, the more the better. So if they would play something on the Ipad, they would prefer to do this together with as many as other people/kids.
So it turned out that maybe 10-12 year olds wasn't really my target audience. (It could be a nice challenge to design an interactive book for them, but I don't want to have another challenge on my hand, I want to choose a target audience that is perfect for the kind of book I want to make, so that I can focus on the challenge of creating an interactive childrens book itself).
So ofcourse my question now was: what IS my target audience?
I looked back at my previous research and at Ijsfontijns research.
I don't want a to young target audience, I want a target audience that is busy developing their reading skills, because these kids are the most interested in reading and experiencing a story. It turns out that children of the age of 7 to 8 are really attrackted to hero's and rolemodels (with might and power), these characters trigger the imagination. These kids are more aware of the difference between fantasy and reality. They are also smart enough to understand a story, instead of just watching actions in a scene. So I my new target audience is going to be children of the age of 7 and 8.
Posts tonen met het label age. Alle posts tonen
Posts tonen met het label age. Alle posts tonen
dinsdag 21 februari 2012
maandag 30 januari 2012
Fieldresearch: analogue interactive books
I've been to 'De Slegte', a big book store in The Hague, where they have over 3000 different books, and a lot of second hand books.
I really wanted to choose my target audience this week. So I wanted to get an impression of what age prevers what kind of books. And I wanted to see how the way of playing diverses between age groups.
Piaget stages of cognitive development (Bee and Boyd, 2000)
Sensory-motor period (0–18 months) – the child engages in sensory play and play
that involves moving objects to produce reactions.
Preoperational stage (18 months–6 years) – The child engages in symbolic play.
Rules are not developed (4–7 years) – the child can perceive and imagine.
Period of concrete operations (6–12) – the child engages in more problem solving
play. Play involves classification and rules.
Period of formal operations (12–15) – thought and play become more abstract. Play
becomes more social and refined.
A list of books for children of the age of 11-12
A list of books for children of the age of 7-8
A list of books for older teens
The books in this list give me an indication of the depth of narrative and the seriousness of the story children of that age can handle. It turns out that books for children of the age of 11+ (also teens) are for me the most interesting. But I still want to create a childrens book, so I prefer 11-12. Also because of the stage of piaget (like discribed earlier).
In De Slegte, especially the teenage category got different kind of books suggested, which are way more focused on teenstories. I asked a girl, who turned out to be 14, what book she would like to read. Se wanted to read Kikkers en Tongzoenen (Frogs and French Kisses). When I asked her if she ever read fantasy or old fairytales, she said she read Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling), but not all of them and she still likes to read Mathilda (Roald Dalh) sometimes. Which are stories that are nice to make an interactive story of, but these stories she reads more out of nostalgy, or because the books were already bought and/or suggested by others.
Conclusion:
After some research (reading articles about age and gender) and fieldresearch (going to De Slegte), I've decided I want to make an Interactive Book for boys and girls of the age of 10 to 12. Children of the age of 10 to 12 still play, they like to play with rule-sets, classifications and they like to solve problems. Kids of younger age (6-10) also have these elements, but I want to design a book for a bit older audience, so that narrativity can be more in-depth. I don't want to choose an older target audience (13+), because this audience prefers to play in a more abstract way, play is more social and refined. They are also more interested in stories that are more about children of their own age, experiencing things they are curious about (like drugs, sex, growing up, boy/girl friends, fame, or 'bad' scenarios).
I really wanted to choose my target audience this week. So I wanted to get an impression of what age prevers what kind of books. And I wanted to see how the way of playing diverses between age groups.
Piaget stages of cognitive development (Bee and Boyd, 2000)
Sensory-motor period (0–18 months) – the child engages in sensory play and play
that involves moving objects to produce reactions.
Preoperational stage (18 months–6 years) – The child engages in symbolic play.
Rules are not developed (4–7 years) – the child can perceive and imagine.
Period of concrete operations (6–12) – the child engages in more problem solving
play. Play involves classification and rules.
Period of formal operations (12–15) – thought and play become more abstract. Play
becomes more social and refined.
A list of books for children of the age of 11-12
A list of books for children of the age of 7-8
A list of books for older teens
The books in this list give me an indication of the depth of narrative and the seriousness of the story children of that age can handle. It turns out that books for children of the age of 11+ (also teens) are for me the most interesting. But I still want to create a childrens book, so I prefer 11-12. Also because of the stage of piaget (like discribed earlier).
In De Slegte, especially the teenage category got different kind of books suggested, which are way more focused on teenstories. I asked a girl, who turned out to be 14, what book she would like to read. Se wanted to read Kikkers en Tongzoenen (Frogs and French Kisses). When I asked her if she ever read fantasy or old fairytales, she said she read Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling), but not all of them and she still likes to read Mathilda (Roald Dalh) sometimes. Which are stories that are nice to make an interactive story of, but these stories she reads more out of nostalgy, or because the books were already bought and/or suggested by others.
Conclusion:
After some research (reading articles about age and gender) and fieldresearch (going to De Slegte), I've decided I want to make an Interactive Book for boys and girls of the age of 10 to 12. Children of the age of 10 to 12 still play, they like to play with rule-sets, classifications and they like to solve problems. Kids of younger age (6-10) also have these elements, but I want to design a book for a bit older audience, so that narrativity can be more in-depth. I don't want to choose an older target audience (13+), because this audience prefers to play in a more abstract way, play is more social and refined. They are also more interested in stories that are more about children of their own age, experiencing things they are curious about (like drugs, sex, growing up, boy/girl friends, fame, or 'bad' scenarios).
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