Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
improving student-to-student social skills. Four specific design guidelines were
developed as a result:
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G1: Interaction should be clearly defined and simple.
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G2: The experience should facilitate supervisor / teacher interaction with the
student.
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G3: The experience should facilitate interactions between students.
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G4: Interaction should not rely on successful collaboration or teamwork from
students.
Input
: Motor skills of the children vary, and the range encompasses those mildly
impaired to children who are heavily impaired. System input requiring gross motor
skills must take into consideration the physical build of a child. Actions need to be
constrained to the reach, jump and step distance of a five-six year old child. Often
developmentally delayed children's hand eye co-ordination is limited, therefore input
actions requiring reflexes or accuracy will need ample room and time. Reaction time
and spatial awareness is often impaired and events requiring actions must allow for
this and occur at a slower speed. Object motion should be slow and relatively
predictable. We developed three design guidelines based on this information:
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I1: System input should only rely on simple fine and gross motor skills.
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I2: Design actions that allow ample room and time for participants to react.
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I3: Input rules and boundaries should be clear and intuitive.
Feedback
: Directions need to be clear, discreet and repetitive to ensure the message is
conveyed. Once an action or task is complete audio/visual feedback should be
provided to ensure children comprehend that a goal has been achieved. When
conveying messages or events visually, content must be modest in color and intensity.
Over stimulation and confusion may result from an excessive range and intensity of
colors, shapes and objects being visible on the screen space. Excessive noise or loud
sudden sounds can disturb some children. Three specific design guidelines stem from
this information:
•
F1: Feedback should be clear and discreet.
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F2: All forms of feedback should not be excessive or loud.
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F3: Feedback should occur immediately after input from a child.
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The Anim-Action Experience
Anim-action is a collaborative art experience playable on the Stomp interactive
surface to maximize the advantages of using a system that allows for whole body
interaction. Participants can work together or individually to create, color and draw
animal characters that come to life. Three stages were included in the experience;
these were designed to progress the participant from simple to more complex learning
goals (see Fig. 1).
