Brain Bridges: Co-Designing Toys with Children
Video produced by Taylor Baucom and Danielle Begnaud
Overview
Over the last 8 months, I’ve been working on my master's thesis project, where I’ve utilized participatory design methods in order to co-design a set of generative toys with a group of children. As proof of the cooperative inquiry method, we explored the role that boredom plays in children’s lives and techniques to enhance their efforts to overcome boredom. We took our project through traditional industrial design phases like research, ideation, prototyping, and testing; and designed a set of toys to spark imagination and creative play. Working on my thesis project has given me the skills and knowledge to carry out successful design research, conceptualization, and implementation.
Over the last 8 months, I’ve been working on my master's thesis project, where I’ve utilized participatory design methods in order to co-design a set of generative toys with a group of children. As proof of the cooperative inquiry method, we explored the role that boredom plays in children’s lives and techniques to enhance their efforts to overcome boredom. We took our project through traditional industrial design phases like research, ideation, prototyping, and testing; and designed a set of toys to spark imagination and creative play. Working on my thesis project has given me the skills and knowledge to carry out successful design research, conceptualization, and implementation.
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Project Context & Framing
Despite a growing body of work in psychology, relatively few studies have examined children’s conceptions of boredom. Little is known about how primary school-aged children (7-13 years) view boredom or manage their feelings of boredom. Mass media outlets warn that today’s children are losing the ability to generate their own antidotes to boredom as they become more dependent on external sources for entertainment. However, the process of overcoming boredom is important in childhood development. It enhances creativity, self-expression, reflection, and problem solving skills.
Despite a growing body of work in psychology, relatively few studies have examined children’s conceptions of boredom. Little is known about how primary school-aged children (7-13 years) view boredom or manage their feelings of boredom. Mass media outlets warn that today’s children are losing the ability to generate their own antidotes to boredom as they become more dependent on external sources for entertainment. However, the process of overcoming boredom is important in childhood development. It enhances creativity, self-expression, reflection, and problem solving skills.
Methodology
To remove adult biases and truly understand how boredom plays a role in school-aged children’s lives, it was critical to involve them in the research and design process as much as possible. I partnered with KidsTeam at the University of Maryland's Human Computer Interaction Lab. An inter-generational team made up of adults and children, KidsTeam practices a co-design method called Cooperative Inquiry to design new technologies for children ages 7 to 13. To prepare myself to design and facilitate these co-design sessions, I read many publications on the Cooperative Inquiry methodology. I also contacted experts in psychology, boredom, and Cooperative Inquiry to learn more about these subjects and to contextualize my research within the design field.
To remove adult biases and truly understand how boredom plays a role in school-aged children’s lives, it was critical to involve them in the research and design process as much as possible. I partnered with KidsTeam at the University of Maryland's Human Computer Interaction Lab. An inter-generational team made up of adults and children, KidsTeam practices a co-design method called Cooperative Inquiry to design new technologies for children ages 7 to 13. To prepare myself to design and facilitate these co-design sessions, I read many publications on the Cooperative Inquiry methodology. I also contacted experts in psychology, boredom, and Cooperative Inquiry to learn more about these subjects and to contextualize my research within the design field.
Every co-design session began with an open-ended Question of the Day related to that session's topic.
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Participants broke into smaller groups to engage in the design activity. Afterward, each group presented its work to the whole team while an adult partner recorded the ideas on a whiteboard.
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Research
My research progressed through three phases, guided by three main research questions; (1) How do children conceptualize and define boredom? (2) What strategies do children devise for managing feelings of boredom? (3) How can design enhance children’s efforts to harness their imaginations in order to overcome boredom?
For each of our seven co-design sessions, I identified research questions, designed session curriculum, prepared activity materials, facilitated the
co-design session, collected and analyzed data, identified key insights, and implemented the insights in design solutions.
Working in three groups, we created low level prototypes following the design prompt: "design something to help you come up with something fun when you’re bored." In 10-minute rotations, each group took turns working with each shape to design ways to combat boredom, then presented their prototypes to the whole team.
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Prototypes designed during co-design sessions. Children were asked to design an "Anti-Boredom Machine" and a
"Boredom Machine."
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Data Collection
After each session, I reviewed all of the collected data including design artifacts, audio recordings, photographs, video footage, journal templates, and field notes. From this data, I identified recurring patterns and themes and translated these themes into key insights.
Design Solution
With these insights in mind, I decided to design a product that would be restricted in time, give children control over their play, develop imagination, provide a creative spark, and utilize cardboard. Brain Bridges is a kit of shapes for kids to design, connect, and construct anything out of the cardboard boxes that they already have at home. The nature of utilizing a material that wears out, yet is replenished with some regularity, provides a time restriction to this play pattern.
With these insights in mind, I decided to design a product that would be restricted in time, give children control over their play, develop imagination, provide a creative spark, and utilize cardboard. Brain Bridges is a kit of shapes for kids to design, connect, and construct anything out of the cardboard boxes that they already have at home. The nature of utilizing a material that wears out, yet is replenished with some regularity, provides a time restriction to this play pattern.
Prototyping & Testing
After developing an early stage prototype, I had different groups of children play test with it, both in and outside of KidsTeam. The children's feedback allowed me to improve and develop the Brain Bridges prototype further.
After developing an early stage prototype, I had different groups of children play test with it, both in and outside of KidsTeam. The children's feedback allowed me to improve and develop the Brain Bridges prototype further.
8-year-old boy play testing with an early Brain Bridges prototype and cardboard boxes. He created a racetrack by flattening the box and adding in his Hot Wheels cars.
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KidsTeam members play testing with an early Brain Bridges prototype and cardboard boxes.
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While child design partners play tested, adult team members wrote down the children's likes, dislikes, and design ideas on sticky notes.
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- The installation of the push-peg pieces was too difficult. So, I designed a corkscrew fastener, which is an easier, safer installation process than a poke-through fastener. 10-year-old Georgia also suggested that the shapes should be able to attach and stack on the fasteners. In the next prototype, only the anchor pieces needed to be screwed into the cardboard, and all of the other shapes easily connected to them with a tension snap, like a marker cap.
- The shapes needed further development. Kids really enjoyed the pieces that contained rope or string, however, they requested more and different types of pieces. A number of children also requested the addition of color to the pieces. I looked to the history of generative toy design such as German wooden building blocks and the original Mr. Potato Head before rapidly generating a large number of new shapes. Then I tested these shapes in various way to see which were the most open-ended. I also added colors as well as new textures and materials.
I took my updated prototype back to KidsTeam to make sure I had addressed their concerns and to see if any new ones arose. The updated fasteners were much easier to install and the kids really enjoyed the addition of new shapes, colors, and material variety.
12-year-old boy play testing with a mid-stage Brain Bridges prototype and cardboard boxes. He is having difficulty connecting the Wiggle shape because it has two points of connection.
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A 7-year-old boy play testing with a mid-stage Brain Bridges prototype and cardboard boxes. He is attaching an updated anchor piece by easily screwing it through the cardboard box.
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Final Prototype
Brain Bridges is a kit of shapes for kids to design, connect, and construct anything out of the cardboard boxes that they already have at home. Designed to spark imagination and creative play, the set includes fasteners to connect different boxes together and to attach an array of open-ended shapes to the boxes.
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So whether you have one box that you attach shapes to or you have ten boxes that you connect into a big structure, the kit provides scaffolding for children to transition into an imaginary world where boxes can be anything.
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References
Druin, Allison. “Cooperative Inquiry: Developing New Technologies for Children with Children.” Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems the CHI Is the Limit -
CHI ’99 , ACM Press, 1999, pp. 592–99. DOI.org (Crossref) , doi: 10.1145/302979.303166.
---. “The Role of Children in the Design of New Technology.” Behaviour & Information Technology , vol. 21, no. 1, Jan. 2002, pp. 1–25. Taylor and Francis+NEJM, doi: 10.1080/01449290110108659.
Mann, Sandi. The Science of Boredom: The Upside (and Downside) of Downtime. Little, Brown Book Group, 2017.