“Let’s Draw Chocolate Milk Together”: Supports and Challenges for Families’ Joint Engagement with Artistic Tablet Apps

Although specific design decisions are known to support Joint Media Engagement (JME; co-play with digital media) it is unclear whether current off-the-shelf tablet experiences are designed with this in mind and whether parents and children are able to engage in JME in practice. As apps that promote artistic creation (i.e., music, drawings) fulfill many extant design recommendations for JME, we observed joint play with two artistic creation apps in a culturally and socioeconomically diverse sample of 20 United States child-mother dyads. Using interaction analysis, we found that in these ”ideal” circumstances, families used varying styles of co-engagement, with Co-Creation and Parent Coaching standing out as collaborative arrangements toward which designers and families can strive. However, there were still challenges, with parents often assuming spectator roles despite their apparent intentions. We highlight key challenges to JME plus design supports and parent strategies to help families jointly engage and create with media.