Towards a Conversational Tool for Discussing and Reflecting with Children on Their Gendered Associations About Technology

Irene Zanardi, Claudia Maria Cutrupi, Monica Landoni, Letizia Jaccheri

Abstract: Early on, children form gender associations that help them categorize the world around them as either feminine or masculine. The same categorization process can be applied to technology, making it critical to investigate their gender-technology connections. By knowing which features can trigger biases, designers may be better able to actively take those into account during the design process. Despite its importance, few methods in HCI explicitly investigate children’s mental models, and none investigate their gender schemata. We present a set of graphic vignettes to engage children in a conversation about technology and gender to elicit their viewpoints, potential biases, stereotypes, and expectations that will affect how they interact with technology in the future. We describe the design and findings of a case study that included over 400 children aged 6 to 11. Then we consider how the vignettes were effective in revealing students’ gender schemata and eliciting their thoughts.

External IDs:dblp:conf/hci/ZanardiCLJ25