"...a load of ould boxology!"

Abstract

This paper documents the design process for an augmented children's play environment centred on that most ubiquitous and simple of objects, the cardboard box. The purpose of the exercise is to show how computer technology can be used in innovative ways to stimulate discovery, play and adventure among children.Our starting point was a dissatisfaction with current computer technology as it is presented to children, which, all to often in our view, focuses inappropriately on the computer per se as a fetishized object. Shifting the focus of attention from the Graphical User Interface (GUI) to familiar objects, and children's interactions around and through these augmented objects, results in the computer becoming a facilitator of exploration and learning. The paper documents the journey from initial design concept, through a number of prototype implementations, to the final implementation. Each design iteration was triggered by observation of use of the prototypes, and reflection on that use, and on new design possibilities. By augmenting an everyday artefact, namely the standard cardboard box, we have created a simple yet powerful interactive environment that, judging from the experience of our "users", has achieved its goal of stirring children's imagination.

Tangible User Interfaces: Past, Present, and Future Directions

“…Interactive playgrounds can be seen as large-scale TUIs that users move around in. The Cardboard Box Garden [61] is an [205] is a physical drawing tool to explore colors, textures, and movements found in everyday materials by allowing users to "pick up" images and draw with them (photo courtesy of Kimiko Ryokai).…”

Collective creation of games using free play technologies

“…All these are crucial social skills for the future adult. Some projects have been designed to stimulate social interaction by providing open-ended scenarios: Morels [6], Boxology [4] Ferris02, LED Ball [3].…”

“…Some of these projects have decided to augment playgrounds, like Flash Poles [17], Boxology [4], or Pathway [14], while others make use of shared objects: the Led Ball [3], Space Explorer [15] and Morels [6] or closely relate to individual objects, such as Spookies [19], Battle Tank [1], or Heart Beat [18].…”

“…In the Boxology [4] project, they choose boxes because they found that boxes inspire children to play, and this would make augmented objects playable. Cardboard boxes affords free play, voluntary use, spontaneous exploration, and make children imagine a multitude of stories to play.…”

Symbolic objects in a networked gestural sound interface

“…In contrast, SignalPlay uses music as a means of exploring a novel interface; we do not think of it as an "instrument," but as an experience. It draws on the idea of tangible bits [6] and is more akin to ensemble [1] or the Cardboard Box Garden [4], which use physically embodied audio spaces to investigate the augmentation of familiar objects with computational capabilities; as we will describe, we extend this by exploring how systemic and collective sound controls affect collaborative interaction.…”