Human Computer Interaction Lab Kids Design the Future

HCIL Design lab at University of Maryland Visual information display Educational materials Designing with children –Unique design team with adults and 7 kids –Adults specialize to certain projects, kids work on every project –Projects, papers, technology design

Design process: Cooperative Inquiry Contextual Inquiry Participatory Design Technology Immersion

Contextual Inquiry You can’t just ask kids what they want Adults observe kids, kids observe kids, kids observe adults Data is drawing, writing, video recording

Shared computer use

Participatory Design Low tech prototyping: so simple even kids can do it

Technology Immersion Expose kids to technologies they may not know about Spark imagination for design ideas Revisit earlier stages in the cooperative inquiry process

ZUIs make relationships visually explicit One child said that using non-zooming interfaces is like "closing your eyes and when you open them you're in a new place." The child then added, "Zooming lets you keep your eyes open.” International Children’s Digital Library

Animal Blocks Based off of Musical Blocks –Combinatorial melodies Each block face corresponds to an animal Each block corresponds to a characteristic (food, location) Synthesis button –‘I am a dog’ –‘I am a sluga-piga-doga-mus’