How to optimize early design methods with children

Early design methods with children are often evaluated on how well the children are involved, rather than on how effective the design session was. In my PhD I developed a framework on the basis of the theory of multiples by H. Gardner. The framework compares early design methods on the cognitive skills they require from the participants. Comparing the skills required by the methods with the skills acquired by children at different ages gives rise to interesting hypothesis about the effectiveness of a method with children. My first experiment showed that involving children in a rapid prototyping explores the design space better in terms of design options than a brainstorming session. In the doctoral consortium I will discuss the expected effectiveness of design methods with children in more detail and the setup of the next experiments.