Metaphor and Typeface Based on Children's Sensibilities for e-Learning

Children exhibit different behaviors, skills, and motivations. The main aim of this research was to investigate children’s sensibility factors for icons, and to look for the best typeface for application to Web-Based Instruction (WBI) for e-Learning. Three types of icons were used to assess children’s sensibilities toward metaphors: text-image, representational, and spatial mapping. Through the factor analysis, we found that children exhibited more diverse reactions to the text-image and representational types of icons than to the spatial mapping type of icons. Children commonly showed higher sensibilities to the aesthetic-factor than to the familiarity-factor or the brevity-factor. In addition, we propose a collaborative-typeface system, which recommends the best typeface for children regarding the readability and aesthetic factor in WBI. Based on these results, we venture some suggestions on icon design and typeface selection for e-Learning.