Design, Experimentation

When creating technology environments for children, consideration needs to be given to how touch, gesture, and physical interactions impact on play and learning. This is particularly important for video games or educational software appealing to young people with different learning styles. Children who are tactile learners are frequently left out of the design equation. New approaches to tangible design can address this imbalance. Animal Wrangler, a prototype of a PC-platform videogame the author co-designed for an Experimental Game Design course, demonstrates objects children encounter in the physical world – everyday playthings – can also be used to enrich virtual play. The next step is to develop the game prototype for dissertation research and gather data to help identify potential benefits of mixed reality play for learning, development, and children’s overall well-being. Author Keywords Child-computer interaction; experimental video games; mixed reality environments; motion detection; play, learning and development