Design Notes

I was babysitting an 8 year old girl one evening and she wanted to go online to play games. She loved the Polly Pocket and Bratz doll websites. In one of the activities, the visitor is able to choose some objects to decorate a room, one of the choices was a jukebox. She turned to me and asked what it was, since it wasn't labeled. I explained it to her, but I thought it was a great example of icons and cultures. For her, a jukebox was completely unfamiliar. Obviously the designers were adults who didn't think about the fact that most children wouldn't have knowledge of such an object.

Another thing this girl did unprompted, was to create a story for the activity. She knew that the activity involved decorating a room, but she gave it her own context, she decided the character is a hip, trendy, fashionista and was going to have a party. Then she decorated the room based on those qualifications. The girl turned what would have otherwise been a somewhat dull activity into one that had emotional meaning and personality.

This girl was obviously intelligent, but I wonder, would the interaction design have been improved if the user was prompted to make up a background story, or would most children make up their own story without being prompted? Is it better to leave things open ended or provide more guidance/direction in this case?