The work of the SIAT Kids Team extends research begun at the Human Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland by Allison Druin and others who have established the concept of intergenerational team design. This process mutually involves adults and children in the work of inventing, creating, and evaluating interfaces and other software design elements. Children take part in this process not as testers or research subjects but as design partners working in direct collaboration with their adult colleagues.

The process has three key components:

1. Contextual Inquiry: Observing what children do with what they currently have. Younger children can be at times non-verbal or lacking self reflection when discussing the world around them; older children may not be conversant with specialized terms and concepts. Simply asking children what they want will not produce the user input that is needed to develop new technologies. Therefore we use observation techniques specifically developed to understand children's exploratory activity patterns.

2. Technology Immersion: Observing what children do with extraordinary amounts of technology (similar to what they might have in the future). With technology immersion, children are provided with a technology rich environment where they have control over the experience. Children have a large amount of time to explore different kinds of technology and make decisions about what they like and do not like. The thinking here is based in part on Allison Druin's CHIKids, an ongoing program at ACM SIGCHI's annual CHI Conference.:

3. Participatory Design: Hearing what children and teachers have to say directly by collaborating on the development of "low tech" prototypes. In addition to collecting data through observation, we need to hear from children and teachers directly. Thus we use intergenerational, interdisciplinary teams to collaborate on low-tech prototypes, sometimes made with paper, clay, glue, crayons, etc. The low-tech tools give equal footing to adults and children, researchers and users and invite unconventional, highly creative thinking that is not constrained by present technologies.