Collaboration
This study was done in collaboration with Rachel Zehrung, previously a Computer Science graduate student at the University of Maryland. We were advised by Dr. Eun Kyung Choe, an HCI professor at the University of Maryland, and Dr. Bongshin Lee, a Principal Researcher at Microsoft.
Introduction
Kids’ wearables have huge potential to impact kids’ health & well-being, self-regulation skills, and safety. To gain insight into the current landscape of kids’ wearables, we surveyed 47 wearable devices marketed for children. We collected rich data on the functionality of these devices and assessed how different features satisfy parents’ information needs, and identified opportunities for wearables to support children’s needs and interests. For parents who are hesitant to purchase a smartphone for early aged kids, wearables can be seen as an alternative smart device while meeting some of parents’ and kids’ needs.
Method
We collected a total of 47 devices found online (22 from Google Shopping, 5 from Kickstarter, 35 from parenting blog posts) from February to March 2020. We ended our data collection once we reached data saturation and encountered mostly duplicates in our search process. We included devices that
were marketed as a children’s device
targeted children of ages 3–12
were available (at the time of the data collection)
had a product site available ensuring that we had access to all device details
Findings
We first performed affinity analysis on the data. After collecting all the features for each device, we grouped similar features into representative categories. Next, we performed deductive analysis to contextualize the purpose of the functionality we recorded and further categorize the data. We identified four high level categories for wearable functionality
Safety: including GPS tracking, on-demand video and audio tracking, and emergency alerts
Connectedness: facilitating communication between family and friends using calls, messages, and video calls
Health: including steps, sleep, and cardiac and body movement, sometimes using games and rewards as an incentive
Nurturing Good Behaviors and Habits: encouraging kids in engage in a variety of behaviors, such as completing their chores and staying focused on relevant tasks
Using methods such as scheduled alerts, educational games
Discussion and future work
Much of the functionality of children’s wearables are dedicated to parents’ informational needs, not children. The most common functionality was surveillance for safety purposes. 68% of the devices contained real time GPS tracking. Much of health tracking was also for parents to ensure that they were getting the necessary amount of physical activity, mostly tracking step count. This information was always transmitted directly to parents’ phones.
But there is a lot of opportunity to support kids’ self-tracking. Almost 40% of devices supported children in developing good habits and self-regulation skills in the context of daily routine and time-management. Just as adults practice self-tracking to achieve various goals (e.g., improving health and productivity) (Choe, 2014), children stand to benefit from practicing self-tracking at an early age. Self-tracking can engage children in planning and reflection, which help children practice self-regulatory mechanisms and develop higher-level thinking skills (Epstein, 2003).
While some wearables allowed children to make cosmetic customizations (changing bands, adding accessories), we imagine more substantive options, such as letting children set individualized goals and track behaviors that are important to them. As a starting point, designers should consider features that support children’s agency (i.e., sense of control) and motivate them to self-track. Involving kids in the design process early on can help designers elicit kids’ values, motivators, and design insights.