The first article I came across was written from a research perspective, it actually detailed the process of interactive design in socially aware playgrounds. If I'm completely honest it reassured me that yes it is possible to create great games whilst taking into account all of the requirements of the brief!
Written by Alejandro Moreno, Robby Van Delden, Ronald Poppe and Dennis Reidsman, "Socially Aware Interactive Playgrounds" details the benefits of play in an interactive environment and how it can better develop physical skills and encourage cognitive development. One of the main topics that was raised was the importance of three main criteria that must be observed when designing the game experience for children:
- Context-Awareness (Sense and interpret social interactions during play)
- Adaption (Adapt the game mechanics and learn from sensed behaviour to create engaging and fun experiences)
- Personalisation (Ensure the game is an experience for all players)
Our concept needs to be fun, immersive and engaging as children are vivacious, EVERYTHING becomes a game! "Socially Aware Interactive Playgrounds" also gave great examples of other interactive designs, the concept of Social Signal Processing (SSP) and touched on kinesics (study of body movements as a mode of communication) and proxemics (space in social settings, really interesting). I wrote too many notes but don't want to keep you here forever so let us move on!
Primary Users: Children
What They Do and Develop
I'm unsure of the validity of the next source as they may present a particular bias in terms of factual/relevant information. Despite this, Fischer-Price, a respected market leader in children's toys, provides plenty of non-fiction stories and examples. They have a complete run down of what particular things children do and start to develop at every age leading up until five years.
3 years:
- Dress up and pretend to be someone else (social)
- Move (Physical)
- Compare/contrast themselves with others (cognitive)
4 years:
- Attention span increases (cognitive)
- Learn to swim, dance, ski, bounce on a trampoline (physical)
- Grasp that people have different feelings (emotional)
5 years:
- Solve and explain things (cognitive)
- Build friendships (social)
- Increase coordination/more complex actions (physical)
- Differentiate between pretend and real (cognitive)
They also like to add consumer comments such as "My 3 year old loves listening to music and playing his guitar. He loves all different kinds of music, Dad of 3 year old". For the most part that comment has to be bias but other than that they provide a bit of insight into the maze of children's products. It did appear to me that they are lacking in physical skill building products for ages 3-5. So it appears our chosen target age group is well suited!
After a little bit more digging I have come up with a list of themes that kids love!
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Passion Topics
It seems apparent that by the age of five children have developed a passion topic of some sort as outlined by Leap Frog. Children start to exhibit quite an appetite to learn more about a particular subject, for e.g dinosaurs, the solar system etc. A first-hand example is can be recognised in my partner's niece, Poppy. She is at the ripe age of four and a half and is trying to find her passion by going through distinct phases, one minute she loves Peppa Pig, art and then gymnastics. By the age of five I suspect she will be well on her way to finding herself, what she likes (she definitely already knows some of what she doesn't like) and a burgeoning interest that teaches her new things!Passion Topics
After a little bit more digging I have come up with a list of themes that kids love!
- Animals, Fruit & Veg, Dinosaurs, Solar System, Characters i.e Disney, Insects, Gardens, Weather/Seasons, Cooking and Arts and Craft. There is obviously plenty more but these seem to be the ones that are most commonly referenced! There is a great blog with a list of activities for some of these themes at www.learningdevelopmentactivities.blogspot.com.
I thought that a list like this might be helpful when working out what to theme to surround our product, especially when it comes to the concept of marketing ideas/packaging/colours!
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Colour Preferences in Children
The above thought of marketing/packaging and colours led me to research this concept even further. How do children respond to colour and what are their preferences? Chung and colleagues conducted a study to analyse the preference colour tone of pre-school children. "The results of this study revealed that boys preferred vivid colours for yellow, red and blue and bright light tones for yellow, green, and purple. On the other hand girls preferred light tones for yellow, green, and purple and pale tones for red and blue". Colours chosen in designing can affect perception and cognition and therefore can improve understanding and enhance learning process. Children are more likely to remember and recall information presented by using colours they respond positively (Cassidy & Zlotkowska).
A study by Marilyn A. Read encouraged that colour in the environment has significant and profound meaning for young children. However, when children were asked what their favourite colour was, the participants often stated more than one colour. One participant's response was "every colour in the whole world". The results of the study showed that children have a particular fondness for the colours red and purple and do not enjoy the colour grey. See below a graph that shows the most preferred colours by first choice:
Colour is clearly an important design aspect when creating a product or environment to learn skills with or in. We will have to take into consideration primary colours and the tones with which they're received. For the record, Poppy's favourite colour was purple (apparently a crowd favourite).
Secondary Users: Parents/Guardians, Teachers and Caregivers
Physical Activity
As we have chosen an age group that is under constant supervision/care its is important that we understand our second user group of parents/guardians, teachers and caregivers. I came across a fantastic resource, released by the NSW Government that has been designed to make it as easy as possible to encourage physical activity experiences for preschoolers and what products/games to use.
"The Physical Activity Handbook" has grouped physical activity experiences into two headings:
1. I Move We Move Every Day - Activities that can be offered opportunistically throughout the day to support initiated, free, physically active play. This is a great section on what activities you can encourage to develop stability, locomotor and manipulative skills.
Stability - Balance
For e.g. "Big Wooden blocks can be used for stepping and balancing on or jumping off, as they are low to the ground".
Locomotor - Walking, Running, Jumping, Leaping & Hopping
For e.g. "Create paths for children to walk between. It can be wide or narrow, straight or zig zagged".
Manipulative Skills - Catching, Throwing Kicking, Striking
For e.g. "Have an assortment of balls readily accessible to children - placed either in ball bags or baskets. There are many different types of balls i.e. plastic, beach, sensory, wobble, foam or stress balls".
2. Learning How to Move - Fundamental movement skills learning experiences for preschoolers. This details planned, adult guided activities that help children explore and develop fundamental movement skills.
The fundamental movement skills learning experiences section dictates that each activity should include a skill specific warm up, game or two targeting one or more fundamental movements and a cool down.
Overall this was a very specific and detailed resource that sparked a few concept ideas for myself. I have come to understand that as with other skills, early childhood educators play a vital role as co-contributors to the development of physical and social skills.
"The Physical Activity Handbook" has grouped physical activity experiences into two headings:
1. I Move We Move Every Day - Activities that can be offered opportunistically throughout the day to support initiated, free, physically active play. This is a great section on what activities you can encourage to develop stability, locomotor and manipulative skills.
Stability - Balance
For e.g. "Big Wooden blocks can be used for stepping and balancing on or jumping off, as they are low to the ground".
Locomotor - Walking, Running, Jumping, Leaping & Hopping
For e.g. "Create paths for children to walk between. It can be wide or narrow, straight or zig zagged".
Manipulative Skills - Catching, Throwing Kicking, Striking
For e.g. "Have an assortment of balls readily accessible to children - placed either in ball bags or baskets. There are many different types of balls i.e. plastic, beach, sensory, wobble, foam or stress balls".
2. Learning How to Move - Fundamental movement skills learning experiences for preschoolers. This details planned, adult guided activities that help children explore and develop fundamental movement skills.
The fundamental movement skills learning experiences section dictates that each activity should include a skill specific warm up, game or two targeting one or more fundamental movements and a cool down.
Overall this was a very specific and detailed resource that sparked a few concept ideas for myself. I have come to understand that as with other skills, early childhood educators play a vital role as co-contributors to the development of physical and social skills.
The "provocations set up by educators to further challenge ongoing skill development provides scaffolding which is crucial to skill acquisition" Jannelle Gallagher (Authorised Supervisor)
Values
Values
The five values the article encourages your child to learn by the age of five is:
- Honesty
- Justice
- Determination
- Consideration
- Love
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Based on this research I feel I have gained a deeper understanding of designing interactive and socially aware games for children, what skills they need and want to develop, design aspects to consider i.e colour, themes that children enjoy, how to encourage physical activity as a caregiver and the values you should instil as a parent. I honestly keep getting trapped in a web of information and feel that its posts like these that help you separate the interesting from poor content. Looking forward to the next step!
- Katie
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