Tabletler Üzerinde Çalışan Okul Öncesi Eğitim Uygulamalarında Grafik Tasarım Problemleri ve Bir Uygulama Önerisi

Abstract

Tablet computers have been created as a result of the changes and developments in the computer field due to the needs of the society and humankind, and they have become the parts of the lives of people from all ages. Thanks to the multimedia features of tablets, the applications for different areas of use are offered in 'application stores'. One of the most important categories in the application stores is education, and therefore the children as the target audience. The number of applications, which are produced to offer particular learning outcomes especially for the children under the age of 6 years defined as pre-school, has been increasing day by day. This increase also brings along certain content and design problems. In the review conducted, it has been seen that there are limited number of Turkish products which are suitable for the mental development of children in particular, provides certain learning outcomes and well-thought-out in terms of graphic design features. In this review and study, the concept and theory of pre-school education, the development periods and areas of children, learning theories in multimedia environment and graphic design field have been defined separately. With the thought that producing an educational product for pre-school children is a significant responsibility, the definition of pre-school education and its status in our country, periods and principles of child development, and the description of toy- and computer-assisted education in the life of a child with reference to the definition of learning concept have been explained in the chapter one as with the help of literature reviews. Cognitive processes and learning theories in learning with multimedia have been defined and emphasized in the chapter two. Material design principles for learning with multimedia and the theories which will be used as a basis for applications to be developed for children have been reviewed and the appropriate ones have been addressed. The cognitive-based processes for pre-school children who have limited capacity of attention and memory have been explained with multimedia design principles, and theoretical areas which will be taken as a basis for graphic design were identified as significant areas through visual perception theories. Tablet computer technology and the definition of application stores have been discussed in chapter three. As a graphic design discipline, Turkish applications which were found to be the most problematic products according to the reviews carried out in application stores have been analyzed visually via screenshots. The products which are considered problematic in terms of graphic design have been assessed and discussed in terms of typography, screen layout design, and illustration. For the development of a tablet application for pre-school children, the responsibilities of a graphic designer and the processes of development have been explained. In order to define pre-school education in Turkey, development periods and principles of early childhood, an application recommendation has been provided to teach the basic shapes and colors which support the preparation phase of children before learning how to read and write. The concept of "nature" has been chosen as the theme of this application. In this regard, the figure of "bee" has been used and basic shapes and colors have been conceptualized through flowers. The purpose here is to teach mathematical and abstract concepts such as shapes and colors through the nature. With the recommendation of the tablet application "Learning Bee, Colors and Shapes", it has been aimed to make children adapt themselves to the design with a personal analogy approach through the hardworking bee.