Analysis ? Honey, I shrunk the software

The screen is almost bare, with no text, and only one button to click. This program, which helps children to learn multiplication tables, is probably not going to win many design awards. But it is the first to be produced using revealing research gathered by Anglia Polytechnic University.

Carried out in conjunction with Ultralab, the university's learning facility, the research aims to draw on children's extensive experience of home computer and arcade games to give them traditional educational benefits.

Ultralab's Professor Stephen Heppell says his team of researchers deliberately chose one of the most humdrum things on the national curriculum - multiplication tables - and asked children to design something they would respond to when trying to learn them.

'Although the research related to a program, it could just as easily have applied to a Web page or multimedia system,' Heppell says. 'The first thing the children told us was not to put any text on the screen. They said that if they had to read anything they would not want to use it.'

The researchers placed a number at the side of the screen to select which multiplication table would be tested. The number stood alone with no explanation and teachers using the software were confused by it. But children raised on a diet of video games read this number as 'levels' and clicked on it without thinking. The click took them to another screen.

Heppell says that children were against numerous and confusing controls, and wanted an element of competition pressure. They felt this was best achieved by increasingly urgent, tense music. The program also features a cartoon character which starts off with a cheesy grin that turns into a worried frown as time moves on and the right answer isn't supplied.

'There was no punishment for a wrong answer, but the children demanded a "reward sequence" even if they were not the best,' Heppell says.

The finished program was tested at a school and Ultralab was stunned by its effect. 'We expected the kids to try it out in ones or twos after school. But whole gangs of them would invade the school's computer room to try it,' Heppell says.

Children were not able to master their times tables in an afternoon, but Ultralab researchers noted that they quickly developed different systems to make sure they 'won'. Some used the conventional mnemonic 'two-fours-are-eight' system based on rhythm, others established their own visual patterning techniques, and a different group again worked number combinations.

Meanwhile, in other parts of Ultralab, researchers were assessing children's ability to absorb information from a variety of sources. 'We placed several television images in front of them and gauged how much information they could obtain from them,' he says. To the team's surprise, the children were able to gain enough information from more than two sources - and in some cases up to four - to make informed decisions.

Heppell believes that the children filled any gaps by using their imagination and their ability to piece together a story from a series of disconnected images. 'Kids are natural information grazers. They move swiftly from one information source to another. That explains why they are able to channel hop or walk away from a film before the end completely satisfied with what they have seen.'

Elderly people were also able to achieve similar results, although not on such a dramatic scale. But adults who had had dealings with computers or audio visuals in the last 20 years could not. 'These are the poor people who owned the early computers and saw them fail. They were the ones who typed out pages of code from books and found their results full of errors.

They expect things to go wrong if they lose their concentration for a moment,' Heppell explains.

But the children had grown up with a generation of computer software that did not fail. They could use computer games and even program that most esoteric of beasts - the video recorder.

The elderly also had no preconceptions. They had usually missed out on the information revolution and were coming to technology at a time when software was much more accessible.

Unfortunately for the development of software, it's the 'damaged' adults who are making the decisions on how screens are laid out. Their fear of something going wrong makes them cram too much information onto each screen, often using mainly text.

'Software needs to get away from the idea that text should be a primary narrative device,' Heppell says. 'The trouble with text is that it becomes the focus and you respond to it rather than what it represents. It's like debating Shakespeare from the text rather than describing feelings from a live performance.'

However, he says that doesn't mean there is no place for text in programs, as some children respond to it very well. 'Kids are generally very visual, but we have had children who have said "yes" to text and "no" to visuals.

There are children who do not respond to sound cues,' he says.

The way round this, says Heppell, is to allow people to design their own combinations. 'Instead of packing programs with extra functions, designers should be looking at providing a basic package with alternatives.'

The Anglia University research showed that children responded better to software that they could configure to their own requirements. 'Designers should allow users to choose whether they want a layout based on visuals, text or sound. They should also look at providing more cultural alternatives, such as different languages, within the format,' says Heppell.

'I think we are at the Henry Ford stage of software design. Designers are telling users they can have any type of program so long as it's what they want to produce. But if you add an element of choice to the equation, give people the chance to format a more basic program the way they want it, you could have a successful product.'

Ultralab is developing its facilities to test how software can be made more friendly and useful. It is also testing systems that will enable television to be more interactive.

'In one scheme, we are working with BT to develop the scripting software that will allow a Web page to be activated by a telephone call. So you'll be able to get information from a Web page while driving a car,' Heppell reveals.

If the technology is developed successfully it will also mean that people will be able to interact with their digital television programs with a telephone call.