To test our ideas and hypothesis
about the design of the product, we made a user-test with children,
of functional prototypes. Beforehand we discussed the purpose of the
test and sat up some survey questions that the test would attempt to
answer. While answering our concrete questions we also wanted to
observe the spontaneous reactions of the children to the objects, and
see if we could develop games for an interactive product with them.
We went out with 16 children and two caretakers to “Oxbjerget”,
an open nature area just outside Copenhagen. With the test we wanted
to try out light and vibration as ways to communicate physical
boundaries. Due to propositions from professor Jan Kampmann, we
furthermore wanted to test the children’s understanding of
direction shown on a compass.
In advance of the test we made one
prototype of a wristband with a small telephone inside that could
vibrate when we called it, and three other prototypes of wristbands
that could change colours with a remote controller. Additionally, we
brought a compass for testing the children’s understanding of
direction.
We put the vibration wristbands on
two different children, on the age of 5 and 3, and told them that
there was an invisible boundary around them, and that the wristbands
would vibrate if they went further away than this boundary. When the
children looked occupied in other things and crossed a certain point,
we would call the phone in their wristbands. They both understood the
signal, though they where a bit confused of what to do when it
happened. An interesting observation was that both of the children
asked us when they could take the wristbands off. Maybe this was
because of the “negative” communication of the wristband, and
because the children could not use it themselves.
We tried the wristbands that could
create and change light in different colours with two groups of three
children. They thought right away that it was fun, and there was
competition to join the experiment. We told them that the wristbands
changed colours if they were put together. The colour-change quickly
became a game and there was created contact between the children,
because they had to approach others with wristbands to change colour.
Inspired from a game they played previously, where some of the
children were zombies in the forest, they agreed that the red colour
was the zombie colour. When a zombie caught someone, this wristband
would also have to be red and another zombie was created. In the game
it became preferred to be red, and because both colours changed when
wristbands were put together, some children tried to hold on to their
colour by keeping it away from the others.
The last test we made with the
children, was to give them a compass in their hand and ask if they
could walk the way the arrow pointed. It went okay, even though they
got a bit confused when the arrow switched direction. To elaborate on
the children’s understanding of physical location in relation to
themselves and others, and explore the creation of location-based
games, we have planned another user-test.