No formal training. Still better at spotting bad design than most teams I’ve worked with.
I have two wonderful kids – a 15-year-old and an 8-year-old. They have grown up in the digital age and are proficient in using technology.
My daughter discovered she could add her friends as emergency contacts and send them texts when her phone was locked.
My son discovered he could use the microphone to complete “spell” words in his education app instead of spelling them.
I was impressed and frustrated. I could only sigh and hope one day they would use their powers for good. However, it showed me that kids are excellent for usability testing. They’re not designers. But they notice everything that’s broken.
1. Kids Don’t Fake Clarity
Lesson: If something doesn’t make sense, they say so—or quit.
They don’t mask confusion. They don’t say “maybe it’s me.”
They click what looks like the answer. And if it’s not? They’re gone.
As adults, we compensate. We guess. We try again.
But users shouldn’t have to work that hard. And kids show us how unforgiving friction really is.
If a child can’t figure out where to go next, don’t redesign for the child.
Redesign for clarity.
2. If It Takes Explaining, It’s Already Failing
Lesson: Design should guide. Not require translation.
Watching my kids try to navigate an app or interface I thought was “obvious” always reveals the truth: it wasn’t.
If I have to say, “Click that first,” or “No, that’s not the real button,” I’ve already lost.
Clarity isn’t what makes sense to you. It’s what makes sense without you.
Every time I explain a flow, I log it as design debt.
3. If There’s a Bug or Workaround, They’ll Find It
Lesson: Their instinct is to explore, not comply. That makes them great testers.
Whether it’s tapping the wrong part of a screen, entering gibberish in a form, or trying to drag something that isn’t draggable, they uncover edge cases without trying.
Which means:
- If the affordance isn’t clear, they’ll misread it
- If the system doesn’t recover well, they’ll get stuck
- If there’s a workaround, they’ll probably take it
What we call “user behavior” is essentially instinct combined with feedback.
Kids don’t bring UX vocabulary—but they do bring honesty. And that’s more useful.
Designing for humans, not for approval
The best usability test I’ve ever run didn’t involve a script. It involved a confused kid, a broken app, and a very honest reaction. Kids don’t fake clarity. They click what makes sense. And they walk away when it doesn’t.