These are pictures from the production of the mockup model for FEEDME.

The model was shaped using an air dry clay, which was left to set for a day (but for some reason become soggy and wet), so it was then heated using an electric heater.

Once the model was hard enough, it was then sanded into the smooth shape, to then be painted with a water based red acrylic. However, the acrylic paint was very frail and would peel and chip very easily. This problem was solved with the use of a water based protective vanish to create the shiny plastic look.

Explanation from Proposal

Considering how children use their environments for adventure and play throughout early stages of learning, the platform will have to be designed in a way that is portable, so it will need to be relatively small for children to take around with them. It will also have to be built with rigidity knowing how toys and such are usually treated by children or at least, the design could feature carrying implementations and storage facilities which will help the child to look after the device.

The portable platform in a way will be emulating many devices that adults already use in there everyday communications and sharing of information except based on an educational level. 

The device will be using latest technologies of Wireless networks combined with GPS systems and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tagging systems.

Other potential uses could be for museums where audio tours are downloaded onto appropriate personal devices as you walk past tagged areas to trigger the interactive information. – “

 

 

Technological and environmental function

In recent experiments with these technologies, the Design Group PROBOSCIS naming their project Urban Tapestries have used them to create a system which allows multiple users, on various platforms and interfaces such as mobile phones, GPS systems, PDA’s to digitally tag a physical place with notes or writings that are location specific. 

This public authoring would also allow others to access this information with their own personal devices, where applications for such a tool could go into leaving personal notes for friends or unknown visitors, to local shops leaving messages as advertisements for sales to warning people of traffic jams or public safety issues and so on. 

Other potential uses could be for museums where audio tours are downloaded onto appropriate personal devices as you walk past tagged areas to trigger the interactive information. – “Urban Tapestries Project http://urbantapestries.net/ Baker, 2008

 

refined designs

With the above information collected from the group surveys and discussions, it has given us a rough start to be able to create some basic interfaces to test on another group. Previously in the group, they were given pencils and paper as well as play dough to make sketches and mock ups of their preferred device shape, where now the paper will be testing the actual usable interface.

Testing the interface involved a rough low tech mock up of both the handheld device and layouts of what would appear on the screen such as interactive menu’s, options and buttons, rough game layouts, functions and character design. This was performed with children on an individual basis so the information of them using it would be un-hinted with no peer bias or interference, which would show any problems with the rough designs.

For the prototype testing which at this stage was the initial development of how the platform could be physically used in terms of size, scale and shape, the design of the platform was made to appear as a touch screen game, where the screen was the main part of the object. The reason we designed it this way was to try and create something different from the competitors products. All other gaming systems targeted to our specified age group were all fairly bulky, which used both physical buttons and touch screen elements, although they were designed to be portable, they seemed like they would have been difficult to carry around.

The ideas behind the design of the first prototype was to simplify some of these elements by making it small enough to be portable and fit in a child’s pocket, as well as the screen to be big enough so its usable.

Taking away the use of physical buttons and making it entirely touch screen was also to simplify the gameplay and interactive activity.

User feedback

Suggestions of being able to actively control the creature seemed to be something of importance. All actions of jumping, running, spinning, flying were mentioned that the creatures in the game could possibly do (mainly from the boys perspective).

With these actions, may be the need for the use of actual buttons to press, as discussed with the children about Apple’s iPhone interface, they found that playing some games on them lacked the response that buttons had. From this feedback came the decision to make the interface and game both button and touch screen controlled.

All the children interviewed liked the idea of involvement with a virtual friend, as pretty much all of them had used Tamagotchi’s. With the mentioning of being able to controll the appearance and ability to upgrade the creature, a suggestion was made to place an “upgrade meter” within the gameplay, as a point for recognition of how well they are going and what they can unlock.

Being able to unlock more games was also of importance to them, whether its by playing the games alot, or by being able to get them externally via codes and passwords from the internet.

These were questionnaires performed with a group of children ages between 8  - 10, which asks them about general aesthetics, such as shape, colour, game layouts, game involvement and characteristics.

Created by Sudah

Written by Sudah

Interactive video and computer games belong to the new multimedia culture that is based on the digital computer technology. These games have become increasingly popular in the past 20 to 25 years, especially among young people. In the beginning they were mainly played by youth and young adults who were enthusiastic about computers. During the early nineties, however, video and computer games became a matter-of-course in the everyday life of young people, including children. There is not one single explanation for this development. Probably a number of different reasons can be alleged.

From an economic perspective one might argue that children and youth have become important target groups for many industries, e.g. media, fashion, music. Young people are believed to act as “driving forces” in and for new markets and products, and their purchasing power is noteworthy.

The computer game industry obviously has been quite successful in attracting these young customers. From a technical perspective one could point out that starting and playing electronic games has become easier in the past two decades. You don’t need specific computer knowledge to use a Game Boy or a television-linked console – it is just plug_and_play. But in order to explain the broad success of video and computer games it is not sufficient to take into account what happened on the part of the media.

It is crucial to see what happened on the part of the players, too. What made and makes video and computer games fascinating for them? How do they use and value different games? To what extent are the changing media environments of children connected to more general social developments? Questions like these are characteristic for scientific approaches which are interested in the social and cultural relevance of media uses. They go beyond media-centred approaches and try to understand how computer games are integrated into the lives of the children and young people. 

Written and conducted by Suhdah

1. I play video or computer games regularly
- several times a day
- every day
- at least once a week

2. I play video or computer games casually
- mostly on weekends
- quite seldom, maybe once or twice a month
- once in a while, but then maybe for several hours
- in another way

3. I don’t play video or computer games
- never tried it
- only tried it, but didn’t continue
- used to play, but don’t play anymore.

4. When do you play video or computer games

- when there is nothing else to do (boring situation)

- when I don’t want to do my homework

- in any possible situation (as often as possible)

- when nobody is there to do something else with

- when friends are there who play (computer games) with me

- when the weather is bad and I cannot go outside.

5. WRITE what you do “often,” “sometimes” or “never.”

- listening to music

- playing alone inside (not computer games)

- playing outside together with others

- reading

- watching television or video films

- listening to audio cassettes (tales and stories, not music)

- playing computer or video games

- playing with parent(s) (not computer games)

- playing with brother or sister (not computer games)

- going for sports 

After this paper prototyping (see also Prototyping side menu for video), came the first designs of the actual game screen and character design.

Here, size was of definite matter, using type and images, which have to fit into the small confined space of the screen which has been dictated by the physical size of the game (being small and portable enough to fit into a child’s pocket).

Interface design 

Start up information, and screens through to playing first games

2nd lot of games, or at least continuing on from game menu, through to completion of games and creature upgrading.

Interface use for information environments such as the museum, where the game prompts the user to pay attention to their surroundings.

Hints can be accessible if the user is having trouble through help or hint menu’s set within part of the quiz or game.

The interface design development started off as rough sketches and story boards to create and general gist of how the screens would follow one another, as well as what kind of menu’s, information and displays will fit into the interface screen in each frame.

It starts off with the general layout of the user introductory stages of name and gender input, to work its way up to naming the creature and rough game layouts.

Initial sketches

Refined interface

These next lot of sketches are a little more precise with how the layouts may actually appear in the game, as these work with actual size a little more (although working with full touch screen design which was changed to also use buttons)

These were also developed for the use with paper prototyping, which were sequenced in a note pad style format, where the tester would touch the paper interface, and flit to the next page

Here is what the paper prototype actually looks like.

A device made from light weight foamcore, which used flip pads as the interface that was attached to  the device for user testing.