TY - JOUR
T1 - The evolution of a toolkit for smart-thing design with children through action research
AU - Gennari, Rosella
AU - Matera, Maristella
AU - Melonio, Alessandra
AU - Rizvi, Mehdi
AU - Roumelioti, Eftychia
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is partially supported by the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano under the SNaP RTD grant and the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR) under grant PRIN 2017 “EMPATHY: EMpowering People in deAling with internet of THings ecosYstems”.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/3
Y1 - 2022/3
N2 - Several workshops use toolkits to engage children in the design of smart things, that is, everyday things like toys enhanced with computing devices and capabilities. In general, the toolkits focus on one design stage or another, e.g., ideation or programming. Few toolkits are created to guide children through an entire design process. This paper presents a toolkit for smart-thing design with children. It revolves around SNaP, a card-based board game for children. The toolkit serves to frame the entire design process and guide them through their exploration, ideation, programming and prototyping of their own smart things. By embracing action research, the toolkit was adopted in actions with children, namely, design workshops. Results of actions were reflected over by considering children's benefits, and they were used to make the toolkit evolve across cycles of action, reflection and development. The paper reports on the latest evolution cycles, ending with the 2020 cycle for continuing smart-thing design during COVID-19 times. The paper concludes with general reflections concerning action research and design with children, toolkits for framing smart-thing design with children, on-going and future work.
AB - Several workshops use toolkits to engage children in the design of smart things, that is, everyday things like toys enhanced with computing devices and capabilities. In general, the toolkits focus on one design stage or another, e.g., ideation or programming. Few toolkits are created to guide children through an entire design process. This paper presents a toolkit for smart-thing design with children. It revolves around SNaP, a card-based board game for children. The toolkit serves to frame the entire design process and guide them through their exploration, ideation, programming and prototyping of their own smart things. By embracing action research, the toolkit was adopted in actions with children, namely, design workshops. Results of actions were reflected over by considering children's benefits, and they were used to make the toolkit evolve across cycles of action, reflection and development. The paper reports on the latest evolution cycles, ending with the 2020 cycle for continuing smart-thing design during COVID-19 times. The paper concludes with general reflections concerning action research and design with children, toolkits for framing smart-thing design with children, on-going and future work.
KW - Action research
KW - Card
KW - Child
KW - Design
KW - Game
KW - Reflection
KW - Smart thing
KW - Toolkit
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111823458&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijcci.2021.100359
DO - 10.1016/j.ijcci.2021.100359
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85111823458
SN - 2212-8689
VL - 31
JO - International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction
JF - International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction
M1 - 100359
ER -