This page is a companion to Interviewing a Young Client. Build your interview guide, your plan for giving every child a turn, and your notes sheet as that page describes. Use this page for the safety rules, for questions to choose from, and for what to avoid.
Your clients are the experts
Your clients are nine or ten, and on this project they know more than you do. They know what they enjoy, what feels tricky at school, and what makes an app fun or frustrating when you are nine. Your job is to find that out. You are not there to collect information about them.
Keeping your clients safe
IMPORTANT
These rules apply at every visit, without exception.
- No photos, video or audio recordings of any child, their work or their screen.
- First names only. You may write a child’s first name in your notes. Never write a last name. Keep names out of your code, your commit messages, any AI chat, and your app.
- Do not ask for personal information: last name, birthday, address, where they live, family details, phone number, email, usernames, gamer tags or photos.
- Do not ask about learning needs or diagnoses. If the LDPS teacher tells you something that affects your design (for example, “larger text would help”), write down only the design need.
- No contact outside the visits: no social media, no email, no messages.
- If a child tells you something personal or worrying, do not write it down. Tell the LDPS teacher and me straight away.
- Do not photograph drawings. If a child would like you to keep a drawing, check with the LDPS teacher first, and make sure it has no name on it.
Questions that work with children
| Type | What it looks like | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Open | ”Tell me about…” | Invites a story instead of one word |
| Show me | ”Can you draw what that looks like?” or “Show me what you tap first.” | Many children can show more than they can explain |
| The last time | ”Tell me about the last time you played a learning game.” | A real, recent example is easier to describe than “usually” |
| Choose and explain | ”Which of these two would you rather use? What made you pick that one?” | Concrete choices are easy; the reason is where you learn something |
| Imagine | ”If you could make a game about sharks, what would happen first?” | Lets them design in their own terms |
Follow-up prompts keep them talking without leading them: “Tell me more.” “What happens next?” “What do you mean by…?” You can also repeat their last few words back as a question: “It gets boring?”
Wait. After you ask a question, count to five in your head before saying anything else. The answer after a pause is often the useful one.
Watch as well as listen. Children often want to please you, so they may say they like everything. Where they point, what they reach for, and where they hesitate often tells you more than what they say.
Things to avoid
| Avoid | Example | Try instead |
|---|---|---|
| Leading questions | ”Wouldn’t it be cool if it had dinosaurs?" | "What would you like your app to be about?” |
| Yes or no questions | ”Do you like math?" | "What’s the best part of math? What’s the worst part?” |
| Grown-up or abstract questions | ”What features do you want?" | "What would you want to do first when you open it?” |
| Questions that feel like a test | ”What’s seven times eight?" | "What’s something in math that feels tricky right now?” |
| Personal questions | ”Where do you live?” “What’s your last name?” | Do not ask. You do not need to know. |
| Promises you cannot keep | ”We’ll make it just like Minecraft.” “We’ll put your name in it." | "We’ll try some ideas and bring them back to show you.” |
| Rapid-fire questions | Five questions in a row without waiting | One question, then wait, then a follow-up |
| Correcting or judging | ”That wouldn’t work in an app." | "Tell me more about how that would work.” |
How to close
- Ask one final open question: “What else should we know to make this app great for you?”
- Summarize back in their words, then check: “So you’d like an app about sharks where you feed them the right fraction. What did we miss?”
- Thank your clients, and tell them what their ideas helped you learn.
- Say what happens next, without promising a date or a feature: “Next time we come, we’ll bring drawings of your app for you to try.”
Question bank
Choose six to eight questions for each visit. Change the wording to suit your clients, but keep each question open.
Warm-up
- What’s something you enjoyed doing at school this week?
- If you could spend a whole afternoon at school doing anything you like, what would you do?
Interests
- Tell me about something you really like. What do you like about it?
- What’s something you know a lot about? Can you teach us one thing about it?
- If you could make a game about that, what would happen first? Can you draw it?
Learning
- What are you learning about in class right now? Tell us about it.
- What’s something at school that feels tricky at the moment? What makes it tricky?
- When something is tricky, what helps you figure it out?
- How can you tell when you’ve got something right?
Apps and games
- Tell me about the last time you used a learning game or app. What did you do in it?
- What’s the most fun part of a learning game you’ve played? What’s the most annoying part?
- When you get something wrong in a game, what would you like to happen next?
Trying designs (for the paper-prototype visit)
- Pretend this paper is a screen. What would you tap first? What do you think will happen?
- Which of these two drawings would you rather use? What made you pick that one?
- What do you think this screen wants you to do?
- If you could change one thing on this drawing, what would it be?
Closing
- What else should we know to make this app great for you?