Digital storytelling as tool for conveying cancer diagnoses to children

Abstract

The experience of receiving a cancer diagnosis might be hard for many, especially for children as they lack knowledge and understanding of what this entails. Receiving information is said to have great effects on the way one handles difficult emotions in difficult situations. It is therefore important that the children receive information about cancer understandable to them. As children seem to enjoy the use of technical devices from a young age, this might be utilized to communicate difficult issues in a child-friendly way. The goal of this thesis was to get an indication towards how a digital story application could function as a tool for conveying cancer diagnoses to children, as well as how the interaction design in such applications could support intuitive interaction. The focus group are children of five years of age and upwards. To answer these research areas, a prototype was developed on the basis of data gathered from professionals, and evaluated with children who have experienced receiving a cancer diagnosis in early age (4-14 years). The result indicated that digital storytelling could be helpful in the process of conveying cancer diagnoses to children. Valuable feedback according to interaction design suggests improvements such as increased visibility of clickable elements and concrete instructions regarding scroll-navigation in the prototype. Overall reactions was positive and suggest needs for such tools.