A presentation and workshop about collaborative design with children in the Étui project, made by Richard Millwood and Dai Griffiths at the Contagious Creativity conference held by FutureLab in Bristol June 2002.

1. Children as participant
designers
• Richard Millwood
Ultralab, APU, UK
richard@ultralab.net
• Dai Griffiths
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
david.griffiths@tecn.upf.es
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

2. Background
• We collaborated in a 400,000 ecu
European project called eTui…
• …to design a toy for 4 – 8 year old
children.
• … to stimulate reflection on
learning
• The project took place between
1999 - 2001
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

3. Participant designers
• Children as customers, and so
as arbiters of success
• Children as consultant experts
• Children as co-researchers
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

4. Children as participant
designers
12.00 - 13.00 Investigating
electronic toys
13.00 - 14.00 Lunch
14.00 - 15.00 Design creativity
15.00 – 15.30 Wrap up
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

5. As participants in this
workshop
• You are adult conference
participants…
• …imagining you are are
children…
• …who are researchers,
consultants, customers and
users
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

6. Investigating electronic
toys
• You test three toys – car, Pixie
and eTui...
• ... in three rotating groups
• Complete the check sheet and
the final column about yourself
• This task was carried out just
like this with primary children
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

7. DOING THE
INVESTIGATION
• SWAP TOYS AT 12.30 and at
12.45
• LUNCH AT 13.00
• COME BACK AT 14.00!
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

8. Report back on
investigation
• Overview of your data
• Contrast with children
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

9. Design creativity
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

10. eTui design process
• 1 Brainstorm
• 2 Bring ideas into focus
• 3 Try it out
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

11. 1. Brainstorm
• Creating a large number of ideas
from a group of people in a short
time.
Restate the problem
Suspend judgement
Free wheel
Quantity
Cross fertilise
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

12. 1. Brainstorm in eTui
• Working with children looking
at toys, television, pets,
cartoons... Looking for clues,
hints, ideas and insights
• Imagining possible (and
impossible) toys
• All activities have a benefit for
children and the school
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

13. 2. Bringing ideas into
focus
• Constraining options can
enhance creativity too
• Picking up on themes from the
brainstorm stage, and getting
more insight into them
• Trying out collaborative
designs. Getting feedback on
preferences.
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

14. 3. Trying it out
• Building virtual and physical
toys, and trying them out with
the children.
• Video and subsequent analysis.
What creative responses and
interactions does the toy elicit?
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

15. Activity briefing (1)
• A toy which stimulates
discussion about its nature and
potential…
• … and raises the philosophical
discussion of self
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

16. Activity briefing (2)
• Neutral gender bias
• Delightful
• Not too like a real animal or
person
• Communicative
• Invites children to touch,
handle and control
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

17. Activity briefing (3)
• Discuss the robot in threes (15
mins)
• What will the robot do?
• Write a few sentences
describing its appearance
• Each participant make a
drawing of the robot (10 mins)
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

18. Activity briefing (4)
• Participants cut the drawing up into
sections all the sections are pooled
(5 mins)
• New drawings are made of the
components, glued onto clean
sheets, then photocopied. (10
mins)
• Give it a name
• Copies are displayed
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

19. Activity briefing (5)
• Look at one you like, and
answer the questions about it
on the handout
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

20. Doing the Creative
Design
• NOW - Discuss toy design in threes
• 14.30 Draw individual sketch
• 14.40 Cut sketches into parts
• 14.45 Re-assemble, choosing from
range
• 14.55 Display and answer questions
• 15.00 END - SUMMING UP
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

21. Our beliefs
• Design with your users…
• …to make the design process
more creative, authentic and so
more effective.
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

22. Our beliefs
• Respect your co-designers as
co-researchers.
Unleash open mindedness
Not “pleasing the researcher”
No-one has the right answers
This produces richer perspectives
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

23. Our beliefs
• Real tasks for real people
Research tasks should be
meaningful, developmental and
have positive outcomes for
individuals
Research should support the
context in which it is undertaken
Recognise that research disrupts
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

24. Our beliefs
• Delight produces better
outcomes
• Affective is effective
• Youth is not preparation for
life, it is life
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

25. Websites
• www.iua.upf.es/etui
• www.ultralab.ac.uk
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

26. Rap up
• Those are our beliefs
• What do you think, based on
QuickTime™ and a
this workshop, and your prior
decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
experience?
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

27. A teacher-collaborator view:
• 1. by giving children a very open forum for
discussion and experimentation it allowed
everyone to engage in the task. Those who are
less likely to 'have a go' and contribute in what
was a relatively large group, did, and they did
so confidently - knowing it was okay to make
mistakes because there weren't any mistakes
to make - if you see what I mean.
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

28. A teacher-collaborator view:
• 2. by making it explicit that there is no
right/wrong answers, children contributed
their ideas and opinions more freely and
abundantly. Although the groups changed
throughout the afternoon, I felt in general that
by the third group - they were readily
engaging in the brainstorm of ideas to 'solve
the problem'
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

29. A teacher-collaborator view:
• 3. The questions, although were quite 'closed'
- mostly yes / no responses, promoted plenty
of discussion. Not only debating '...was it
really learning' but also, what does it mean to
'learn' - and how would we know. Fascinating -
and all the things we were looking to extract
from the activity. Hopefully this was recorded
on video.
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

30. A teacher-collaborator view:
• 4. I found the activities rich in opportunity for
determining children's awareness and ability -
from spatial awareness, problem solving to
their ability to communicate their ideas to
others.
June 2002 Contagious Creativity

31. A teacher-collaborator view:
• 5. I felt that the children already perceive that
many toys do think and have senses/feelings -
or they imagine they do. It's all part of their
imaginative and playful minds.
June 2002 Contagious Creativity