Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Almost all the children fi lled the paper “platform”; most of them felt the need to
align the cards, arranging them in straight lines while telling the story. Very often
the children spontaneously removed some cards from the “platform”, replacing and
adjusting them to the narrative that they were creating.
12.3.3.1
Refl ections on the Follow-Up Iteration
Observing the children placing the cards in rows on the paper “platform” and notic-
ing that many of them were concerned with their alignment suggested that having
slots to place the cards would facilitate children's task, offl oading extra cognitive
processes, as children would not have to worry about alignment issues.
Relatively to the size of the platform, some children felt compelled to fi ll the
complete cardboard with the cards, clearly showing the need to reduce the size of
the platform. Given that the children used the space differently - e.g. some began to
place the cards on the top-left side, others on the bottom-right side, others placed the
cards on the middle of the “platform”, and some used the space as a drawing - the
system needed to identify three things:
The content of each card
Its location
The order each card entered the system
This would allow users to place a card on the bottom of the platform and then
continue placing the next card on the middle of the platform, jumping back and
forth as they created their story. Additionally the system needed to support connec-
tions between cards, or groupings of cards.
12.3.4
Functional Prototype
The next design stage was to explore the development of a prototype that recognised
physical content and displayed it digitally, generating an environment for the
creation of narratives, as well as to defi ne the physical interaction with the digital
content.
12.3.4.1
Physical Manipulation
The manipulation of the digital content needed to be intuitive and direct, placing the
emphasis on the interaction between the users and the task (Djajadiningrat et al.
2004
; Forlizzi and Ford
2000
; Hornecker and Buur
2006
), creating a direct mapping
between input and output (Anderson and Shattuck
2012
; Antle et al.
2011
). Outgoing
from the idea of using picture cards, the team chose blocks for defi ning and manipu-
lating the story elements. Blocks are simple, intuitive objects, familiar to every
