Designing web portals in intergenerational teams: Two prototype portals for elementary school students

This article describes and discusses the detailed procedures followed by two intergenerational teams comprising the researchers and a group of eight grade-six elementary students (ages 11 to 12 years) and a group of six third-grade elementary students (ages 8 to 9 years), respectively, in designing two prototype Web portals intended for use by elementary school students. These procedures were based on three design theories: Contextual Inquiry, Participatory Design, and Cooperative Inquiry. The article also presents and describes the two resulting Web portal prototypes and discusses the design criteria employed by the teams. Conclusions are elaborated on the basis of this research experience regarding how such a design process should be conducted in the context of an intergenerational team, and what characteristics young users expect to find in Web portals that they will use to support their informational needs in terms of elementary school projects and assignments.