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June 2002 Contagious Creativity Children as participant designers Richard Millwood Ultralab, APU, UK [email protected] Dai Griffiths Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona [email protected]

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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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Page 1: Participant designers

June 2002 Contagious Creativity

Children as participant designers• Richard Millwood

Ultralab, APU, UK

[email protected]

• Dai Griffiths

Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona

[email protected]

Page 2: Participant designers

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

Page 3: Participant designers

June 2002 Contagious Creativity

Participant designers

• Children as customers, and so as arbiters of success

• Children as consultant experts

• Children as co-researchers

Page 4: Participant designers

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

Page 5: Participant designers

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

Page 6: Participant designers

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

Page 7: Participant designers

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!

Page 8: Participant designers

June 2002 Contagious Creativity

Report back on investigation• Overview of your data

• Contrast with children

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June 2002 Contagious Creativity

Design creativity

Page 10: Participant designers

June 2002 Contagious Creativity

eTui design process

• 1 Brainstorm

• 2 Bring ideas into focus

• 3 Try it out

Page 11: Participant designers

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

Page 12: Participant designers

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

Page 13: Participant designers

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.

Page 14: Participant designers

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?

Page 15: Participant designers

June 2002 Contagious Creativity

Activity briefing (1)

• A toy which stimulates discussion about its nature and potential…

• … and raises the philosophical discussion of self

Page 16: Participant designers

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

Page 17: Participant designers

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)

Page 18: Participant designers

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

Page 19: Participant designers

June 2002 Contagious Creativity

Activity briefing (5)

• Look at one you like, and answer the questions about it on the handout

Page 20: Participant designers

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

Page 21: Participant designers

June 2002 Contagious Creativity

Our beliefs

• Design with your users…

• …to make the design process more creative, authentic and so more effective.

Page 22: Participant designers

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

Page 23: Participant designers

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

Page 24: Participant designers

June 2002 Contagious Creativity

Our beliefs

• Delight produces better outcomes

• Affective is effective

• Youth is not preparation for life, it is life

Page 25: Participant designers

June 2002 Contagious Creativity

Websites

• www.iua.upf.es/etui

• www.ultralab.ac.uk

Page 26: Participant designers

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.

Page 27: Participant designers

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.

Page 28: Participant designers

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'

Page 29: Participant designers

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.

Page 30: Participant designers

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.

Page 31: Participant designers

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.