No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

This paper describes a tabletop prototype that allows kindergarten children to take the benefits of the new pedagogical possibilities that tangible interaction and tabletop technologies offer to manipulative learning. After analyzing children's cognitive and psychomotorial skills, we have designed and tuned a prototype game suitable for children aged 3 to 4 years old. Our prototype uniquely combines low cost tangible interaction and tabletop technology with tutored learning. The design has been based on observations of the children using the technology, letting them freely play with the application during three play sessions. These observational sessions informed the design decisions for the game whilst also confirming the children's enjoyment with the prototype.

This paper presents the design process of a set of games involving tangible interaction using toys handled on an active surface tabletop. The games are oriented to young children, so special care has been taken to involve them in a child-centred design life cycle. The iterative nature of this design paradigm was supported by frequent test sessions, where data relating to usability and fun was captured and analysed in order to guide successive design iterations until a finished product was achieved. Details are given of how data collected from test sessions with children helped to create, evolve and improve the games and toys. The final aim of our work is to bring recent proposals in natural interaction closer to young children, adapting them to children's development and preferences.