Journal Article

Analysis of UX Elements in Educational Applications for Young Children and Implementation of ISO/IEC 25010 Quality Standards

Jung, Hae Sun, Lee, Haein, Park, Keon Chul

2025

Overview

This study investigates user experience (UX) priorities in early childhood education applications by analyzing Korean-language user reviews using Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers topic modeling (BERTopic). Eighteen latent topics were extracted and systematically mapped to the eight software quality characteristics defined by the ISO/IEC 25010 framework. The analysis revealed that compatibility, functional suitability, and usability were the most frequently referenced attributes, reflecting parental concerns related to device performance, educational reliability, and ease of use. Less frequently noted were issues related to maintainability, security, and portability. By aligning user feedback with a standardized quality model, this study offers practical guidance for improving UX in applications designed for young children. The findings suggest that early-stage design should prioritize technical stability and developmental appropriateness to foster engagement and trust. This approach can help create more effective and dependable learning environments that meet the needs of both children and their caregivers. Furthermore, the methodological framework adopted in this study can be applied in other linguistic and cultural settings to examine universal and context-specific UX concerns. Such cross-cultural application has the potential to support the development of inclusive, evidence-based design strategies in the field of educational technology. Plain language summary Better educational applications for young children: Learning from parent experiences This study looks at how the experiences of parents and caregivers using early childhood education apps can be improved. By analyzing user feedback from Korean-language reviews, the researchers found important aspects that affect the quality of these apps. They compared these aspects with international standards set by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to create guidelines that developers can use to build better apps for young children. The research used a method called BERTopic, a machine learning technique that helps uncover key themes in large sets of written feedback. By applying this tool to Korean-language user reviews, the researchers identified 18 important topics. These topics were then linked to ISO standards, which focus on app qualities like functionality, usability, reliability, efficiency, and security. The results show that features such as how well an app works, how easy it is to use, and how reliable it is are crucial for making the app safe and effective for young learners. This study can help app developers and service providers improve their products by using user feedback to create more reliable, useful, and secure apps. It aims to help build better learning environments for children, making these apps a trusted resource for parents over the long term.

• Publisher: SAGE Publications,SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC,SAGE Publishing
• Subject: Academic achievement / Application / Bidirectionality / Caregivers / Childhood / Children / Early childhood education / Educational technology / Feedback / International organizations / International standards / ISO standards / Korean language / Language / Learning environment / Parent-child relations / Parents & parenting / Quality standards / Reliability / Security / Software / Software quality / Standardization / Suitability / Topics / Usability / User feedback / Young Children