The Demographics.
Pheeeeeeew~ I felt so helpless when I tried to think and recall all my memories during the age of 6 to 12, but I could only think of my kindergarten school name at last! Well I gave up digging stuff from my brain and changed target to a bunch of lovely kids in my family. After all I realized I had never observed so clearly about their quirky behaviors all these whiles, even if I see them almost everyday! Those kids are hyperactive, mischievous, noisy, joyful, vivacious, interested in real life tasks and activities, enthusiastic to learn new things, never listens to instructions when they think they could make it themselves, have loads curiosity and eagerness, always make use of their tears when things are messed up, naive but smart... oh and they are definitely the creators of joy in a family!
However, I somehow felt that observing kids is kind of unconvincing if we wanted to make a thorough research about the kids' characteristics. Anyway, instead of interviewing experts in demographics, I have collected some helpful information through the internet. Now that we have agreed to stick with the KLIA Transit idea, we have properly discussed about the whole concept since it is the dominant part of our proposal. Knowing that our concept represents our target audiences as well, demographics of our target audiences who are kids between age 6 to 12, are the key words. We made sure that our concept have something interesting to connect with kids of that age range, so that the interactivity between our target audience and KLIA transit can be created. From the research that I have made, I shall make the idea about our target audience clearer by classifying them into a few developmental domains - physical, social, emotional and cognitive - that's what I have found in one of the websites! :)
Characteristics of Kids From 6 Years Old to 12 Years Old
1. Physical Development - skilled at using scissors and small tools
- development of permanent teeth
- enjoys testing muscle strength and skills
- good sense of balance
- can catch small balls
- can tie shoelaces
- enjoys copying designs and shapes, letters and numbers
- can print name
- can catch small balls
- long arms and legs may give gawky awkward appearance
2. Social & Emotional Development
- being with friends becomes increasingly important
- interested in rules and rituals
- girls want to play more with girls; boys with boys
- may have a best friend and an enemy
- strong desire to perform well, do things right
- begins to see things from another child's point of view, but still very self-centered
- finds criticism or failure difficult to handle
- seeks a sense of security in groups, organized play, and clubs
- generally enjoys caring for and playing with younger children
- may become upset when behavior or school-work is ignored
- views things as black and white, right or wrong, wonderful or terrible, with very little middle ground
3. Intellectual Development
- their ability to speak and express themselves develops rapidly (this is important for success in school)
- during play, they practice using the words and language they learn in school
- they start to understand time and days of the week
- they like silly rhymes, riddles, and jokes
*Activities To Do With Children*
- Make time for running, hopping, skipping, jumping rope, and climbing. Do these activities with the children.
- Encourage children to dance or skip to music. Dance and sing with them. Set up a game of tug-of-war.
- Teach beginning tumbling skills on a mat.
- Serve healthy snacks (no junk foods). Let the children help prepare and serve the snack. Have games where children can play together. If necessary, change the rules of the game so everyone gets a chance to win.
- Give children things for make-believe and pretend play. Use clothes, small plastic cars, people, and animals.
- Play sorting games.
- Provide materials for painting, drawing, pasting, and molding clay.
- Encourage children to talk about their feelings while working on a project or playing.
- Count things with the children. Have them identify numbers and letters on household objects.
- Basic sewing skills with a large needle.
Oh gosh... just about these 6 to 12 age range kids I have learnt so much! I felt a sudden of skeptical, how would I grab all the knowledge around the world in this short life? Haha anyway there are too many useful good articles on the internet, so I have inserted the clearest information I have gotten. After studying the demographics of our target audience, we shall relate them with the KLIA Transit appropriately according to what they like and dislike, what activities they can do best, what kind of environment suits them most and etc.. I believe by assuring these target audiences of ours to gain something special which would also benefit their characteristic developments, it should not be a problem for the success of our concept! I truthfully wish that this application to the kids between ages from 6 to 12 could work excellently, umm so, happy solo journey kids! Promised you won't get lost. :)
By Li Ying a.k.a. Val [Gendhengs # 2]
Yoohoo! So this is the 'enhanced' sketch of ours for the umm... sorta background of our application! A pen & pencil drafted one, and the former is posted below. As you can see, the little board I have drawn on top of the paper is an existing signage in the airport. It is actually "KLIA Transit" haha... and followed by some japanese words plus an errow showing the way people can get themselves to that particular area. I got some references from different websites and finally sketched a KLIA train as the background of the characters. Cute eyes were added on the front of the train because I believe children do "think" that any dead things is sometimes alive as they are gifted with great imaginations! A smiling happy train would surely attract kids' attention and so as the friendly Trankids-guides. The friendly Trankids-guides will be the ones who guide the kids along thier solo-journey, by helping them with anything or everything that they are unsure of. Psychologically the kids will feel a sense of security when they are following them, and you can't predict if the kids will even want to stick together with the friendly guides all the time along the journey! The kids is presumed blur and stucked with many queries in their head while following the Trankids-guides, so the function of the dialogue balloon is to show what their queries are, and then they will be guided step by step with easy explanations til they understand everything. Well you see, cute not? \^o^/
