Examining the values inherent in papers published at IDC provides a lens to our research community and informs the path of future research needs and opportunities. We conducted a content analysis of the values expressed in all full IDC papers between 2011 and 2019 and a survey with the first authors of 20% of these papers. We examine the types of IDC research contributions, the qualities and behaviors the research seeks to support in children, the role of the child and other stakeholders in the design process, the theories that inform IDC research, and the criteria that guide the technical design choices. We discuss the research contributions and the core value trends over the past two decades of IDC full published papers. We also present the ethical considerations central to the surveyed authors' work. Based on our analysis, we discuss implications and opportunities for future contributions, such as explicit attention to inclusivity in research, encouraging multidisciplinary collaborations, and expanding the qualities our community aims to support in children.
Abstract
Summary
This paper takes a step back to ask what the Interaction Design and Children (IDC) research community truly values by analyzing nearly a decade of published work and surveying paper authors. The findings reveal trends in how researchers think about children's roles, ethics, and inclusivity, and suggest new directions such as broader multidisciplinary collaboration and more explicit attention to diversity in future child-centered technology research.