Designing Animated Characters for Children of Different Ages
Elizabeth CarterMoshe MahlerMaryyan LandlordKyna McIntoshJessica Hodgins
Proceedings of the The 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (June 21, 2016)
teaser

Animated characters are commonly used in children's television, movies, and applications. Artists seek to create characters that maximally engage their audiences and tailor these characters carefully. In order to examine the relationship between stylistic elements of animated characters and the target ages of their audiences, we performed a series of qualitative and quantitative studies. By using existing media, we determined that characters created for younger children have larger head height, larger eye height, and rounder eyes than those created for older children. However, we found no systematic differences by age when we had children express preferences for existing characters or create their own characters. These results suggest that current artistic trends do not accurately reflect the character design preferences of children.

Elizabeth Carter, Moshe Mahler, Maryyan Landlord, Kyna McIntosh, Jessica Hodgins (June 21, 2016). Designing Animated Characters for Children of Different Ages. Proceedings of the The 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children.

@article{Hodgins:2017:DOE,
author={Elizabeth Carter, Moshe Mahler, Maryyan Landlord, Kyna McIntosh, Jessica Hodgins},
title={Designing Animated Characters for Children of Different Ages},
journal={Proceedings of the The 15th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children},
year={June 21, 2016},