TOMMI criteria catalog

On behalf of the German Children's Software Award TOMMI and its publisher Thomas Feibel, 14 students investigated the question of how children's software can be evaluated in a project at HAW Hamburg in the winter semester 2020/2021. The goal was to develop a catalog of criteria for evaluating good children's software, which on the one hand serves librarians as an orientation guide for acquisition, but on the other hand should also be accessible to children, educators and interested parents.

Methodologically, the state of research on the evaluation of children's software was first surveyed and the market (providers, consumers) of games, apps for children, electronic toys and educational software was investigated. Subsequently, more than 80 digital and electronic applications were tested in structured software tests and evaluated using test protocols. For a more comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of the research question, around 20 expert interviews with children, game developers, media educators, as well as teachers, educators and librarians were conducted and content-analytically evaluated.

The result was a catalog with around 250 criteria in the categories of safety, technology, fun, content, design and educational value. The approach, results and lessons learned were documented in a project report.