Addressing children and caregivers' concerns in the design of child-targeted locative systems.

Children’s independent mobility has proved to have a tremendous positive impact on their well-being, social and cognitive development, and spatial understanding. However, children’s independent mobility is declining in several countries although the increasing number of investments in urban mobility and the incentives for sustainable adoption of public transport and shared mobility. Concurrently, ownership of mobile devices is growing, opening up compelling opportunities for location- and map-based applications and services designed for and with children. This article investigates the needs and concerns in the design of child-targeted locative systems addressing children’s independent mobility while considering caregivers’ approval and fears. We present a study with seven families (nine children, 8-13-year-old, and seven adults) by taking an interdisciplinary approach. Inspired by scenario-based design, we invited the participants to imagine themselves in independent mobility scenarios (e.g., daughter and father negotiating a school path) and tell what design choices they would make. Our results indicate that the design of a child-targeted locative system should enhance physical safety on the road and enhance online safety.