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Designing ubiquitous computing to enhance children's interaction in museums

Published: 08 June 2005 Publication History

Abstract

The research reported in this paper set out to explore novel, interactive techniques to stimulate active participation, involvement and learning by children visiting a museum, through ubiquitous computer technology. To achieve this, a systematic design process was undertaken, which involved exploring Scenario-Based Design, Design-Based Research and a number of technology probes. These lead to the selection, design and implementation of "Re-Tracing the Past" in the Hunt Museum in Limerick, Ireland. The "Re-Tracing the Past" learning environment, with a focus on history and material culture, is described in detail and evaluated.The evaluation takes a case-based approach using video recording and post hoc analysis of the activities, discussion, reaction, and questioning by the children, both as individual participants and in interactive groups. The data derived from these video recordings is analysed in the context of eight design themes, which informed the development of the novel, computer-augmented museum exhibition. These themes included: (1) materiality; (2) narrativity; (3) sociality; (4) activity; (5) multimodality; (6) engagement; (7) computer as augmentation tool; and (8) pedagogical activity. The project culminated in the articulation of a series of outline design guidelines or design heuristics relating twelve experiential criteria to five supporting design informants and resources. These guidelines could be adapted to the design of other interactive learning environments for children. This together with very detailed description of the Scenario-Based Design and Design-Based Research in action constitute the major contributions of the research.

References

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      cover image ACM Other conferences
      IDC '05: Proceedings of the 2005 conference on Interaction design and children
      June 2005
      128 pages
      ISBN:1595930965
      DOI:10.1145/1109540
      Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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      Published: 08 June 2005

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      Author Tags

      1. design guidelines
      2. emerging technologies
      3. interaction design for children
      4. museum pedagogy

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      IDC05
      IDC05: Interaction Design and Children
      June 8 - 10, 2005
      Colorado, Boulder

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      • (2023)Unobtrusive interaction: a systematic literature review and expert surveyHuman–Computer Interaction10.1080/07370024.2022.216240439:5-6(380-416)Online publication date: Feb-2023
      • (2022)Designing for Design-after-Design in a Museum InstallationNordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference10.1145/3546155.3546687(1-11)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2022
      • (2022)Exploring affordances through design-after-design: the re-purposing of an exhibition artefact by museum visitorsProceedings of the 14th Conference on Creativity and Cognition10.1145/3527927.3532802(125-134)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2022
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