We made new prototypes in order to
test how the children could read representations of direction and
explore possibilities of location-based games.
A simple prototype was
a paper wristband on which we drew dots in direction of the other
children on the spot. They understood this representation intuitively
and responded correct continuously throughout the test when they were
asked to point in the direction of the respective dots.
We
brought three smartphones, all with an app that could locate the
other smartphones on a map. We divided the children into groups and
each group followed an adult with a smartphone. We played a game of
hide and seek, where the groups could see each other on a map, so the
seeker could locate the hider, but the hider could also run when the
seeker came close. The children were very into the game, but they had
difficulties in reading the map without help from an adult, and ended
up not trying to read the map. We also brought the compass again, and
the children understood the direction, and used it for finding
treasures that we had hidden in the direction of North. This of
course did not work precisely, when the children came closer to the
treasure, because the arrow just pointed North.
From the tests we
could see that the children had intuitive understanding of the
direction of different points, in contrast to representations on a
map, and also that the games we organised was fun for the children
and made them run a lot.