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A presentation and workshop about collaborative design with children in the Étui project, made by Richard Millwood and Dai Griffiths at the Contagious Creativity conference held by FutureLab in Bristol June 2002.
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June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Children as participant designers• Richard Millwood
Ultralab, APU, UK
richard@ultralab.net
• Dai Griffiths
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
david.griffiths@tecn.upf.es
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Background
• We collaborated in a 400,000 ecu European project called eTui…
• …to design a toy for 4 – 8 year old children.
• … to stimulate reflection on learning
• The project took place between 1999 - 2001
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Participant designers
• Children as customers, and so as arbiters of success
• Children as consultant experts
• Children as co-researchers
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Children as participant designers
12.00 - 13.00 Investigating electronic toys
13.00 - 14.00 Lunch
14.00 - 15.00 Design creativity
15.00 – 15.30 Wrap up
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
As participants in this workshop• You are adult conference
participants…
• …imagining you are are children…
• …who are researchers, consultants, customers and users
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Investigating electronic toys• You test three toys – car, Pixie
and eTui...
• ... in three rotating groups
• Complete the check sheet and the final column about yourself
• This task was carried out just like this with primary children
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
DOING THE INVESTIGATION• SWAP TOYS AT 12.30 and at
12.45
• LUNCH AT 13.00
• COME BACK AT 14.00!
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Report back on investigation• Overview of your data
• Contrast with children
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Design creativity
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
eTui design process
• 1 Brainstorm
• 2 Bring ideas into focus
• 3 Try it out
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
1. Brainstorm
• Creating a large number of ideas from a group of people in a short time.
Restate the problem
Suspend judgement
Free wheel
Quantity
Cross fertilise
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
1. Brainstorm in eTui
• Working with children looking at toys, television, pets, cartoons... Looking for clues, hints, ideas and insights
• Imagining possible (and impossible) toys
• All activities have a benefit for children and the school
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
2. Bringing ideas into focus• Constraining options can
enhance creativity too
• Picking up on themes from the brainstorm stage, and getting more insight into them
• Trying out collaborative designs. Getting feedback on preferences.
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
3. Trying it out
• Building virtual and physical toys, and trying them out with the children.
• Video and subsequent analysis. What creative responses and interactions does the toy elicit?
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Activity briefing (1)
• A toy which stimulates discussion about its nature and potential…
• … and raises the philosophical discussion of self
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Activity briefing (2)
• Neutral gender bias
• Delightful
• Not too like a real animal or person
• Communicative
• Invites children to touch, handle and control
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Activity briefing (3)
• Discuss the robot in threes (15 mins)
• What will the robot do?
• Write a few sentences describing its appearance
• Each participant make a drawing of the robot (10 mins)
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Activity briefing (4)
• Participants cut the drawing up into sections all the sections are pooled (5 mins)
• New drawings are made of the components, glued onto clean sheets, then photocopied. (10 mins)
• Give it a name
• Copies are displayed
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Activity briefing (5)
• Look at one you like, and answer the questions about it on the handout
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Doing the Creative Design• NOW - Discuss toy design in threes
• 14.30 Draw individual sketch
• 14.40 Cut sketches into parts
• 14.45 Re-assemble, choosing from range
• 14.55 Display and answer questions
• 15.00 END - SUMMING UP
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Our beliefs
• Design with your users…
• …to make the design process more creative, authentic and so more effective.
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Our beliefs
• Respect your co-designers as co-researchers.
Unleash open mindedness
Not “pleasing the researcher”
No-one has the right answers
This produces richer perspectives
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Our beliefs
• Real tasks for real peopleResearch tasks should be
meaningful, developmental and have positive outcomes for individuals
Research should support the context in which it is undertaken
Recognise that research disrupts
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Our beliefs
• Delight produces better outcomes
• Affective is effective
• Youth is not preparation for life, it is life
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Websites
• www.iua.upf.es/etui
• www.ultralab.ac.uk
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
Rap up
• Those are our beliefs
• What do you think, based on this workshop, and your prior experience?
QuickTime™ and a decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
A teacher-collaborator view:
• 1. by giving children a very open forum for discussion and experimentation it allowed everyone to engage in the task. Those who are less likely to 'have a go' and contribute in what was a relatively large group, did, and they did so confidently - knowing it was okay to make mistakes because there weren't any mistakes to make - if you see what I mean.
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
A teacher-collaborator view:
• 2. by making it explicit that there is no right/wrong answers, children contributed their ideas and opinions more freely and abundantly. Although the groups changed throughout the afternoon, I felt in general that by the third group - they were readily engaging in the brainstorm of ideas to 'solve the problem'
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
A teacher-collaborator view:
• 3. The questions, although were quite 'closed' - mostly yes / no responses, promoted plenty of discussion. Not only debating '...was it really learning' but also, what does it mean to 'learn' - and how would we know. Fascinating - and all the things we were looking to extract from the activity. Hopefully this was recorded on video.
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
A teacher-collaborator view:
• 4. I found the activities rich in opportunity for determining children's awareness and ability - from spatial awareness, problem solving to their ability to communicate their ideas to others.
June 2002 Contagious Creativity
A teacher-collaborator view:
• 5. I felt that the children already perceive that many toys do think and have senses/feelings - or they imagine they do. It's all part of their imaginative and playful minds.
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