‘GAMES IN THE PARK’: STORIES AND GPS BASED FUN TO ENCOURAGE INTERACTION WITH NATURE (original) (raw)

PLAYING IN THE PARK: OBSERVATION AND CO-DESIGN METHODS APPROPRIATE TO CREATING LOCATION BASED GAMES FOR CHILDREN

A series of co-design activities were carried out in response to a 'real world design problem' initiated by the Sussex Wildlife Trust. Investigations were focussed on how technological interventions could encourage outdoor play for older children (aged 8-12) who were less inclined to attend holiday clubs in the countryside than younger children. Studies have shown that spending time outdoors during formative years will encourage visits during adulthood and promote environmental awareness. The focus for the work was on developing participatory techniques for this age group that improve communication with adult partners and encourage creative thinking. In particular the use of character and story design activities facilitated open discussions about their preferences and opinions and avoided the constraints of a real design problem. Methods for this age group were adapted for the 'Say', 'Do', 'Make' method of triangulating data . The children helped to co-create a series of Location Based Games that provided a useful design template for further development of the concept.

Digital Geogames to foster local biodiversity

International Journal for Transformative Research, 2015

The valuing of biodiversity is considered to be a first step towards its conservation. Therefore, the aim of the BioDiv2Go project is to combine sensuous experiences discovering biodiversity with mobile technology and a game-based learning approach.Following the competence model for environmental education (Roczen et al, 2014), Geogames (location based games on smartphones) for experiential outdoor learning activities are developed. The Finde Vielfalt Simulation (FVS) Geogame focuses on adolescent visitors of German youth hostels. The FVS-players are involved in a narrative keeping the traditions of their ancestors’ heritage as decisions are needed to balance biodiversity and economic success. They discover the natural environment and they solve location-based tasks at several places. If the players manipulate a simulation successfully they stand the test of the ancestors.The initial theoretical framework consists of the components biodiversity-related attitudes, behaviour and knowl...

Evaluating player experience for children’s outdoor pervasive games

There is a growing body of research in pervasive outdoor gaming, mainly focused on adult players playing games on smart phones. Published evaluations of the player experience in such games are largely based on anecdotal descriptions and post-play surveys. The latter approach is especially challenging to apply when the play test participants are children. Observations of game play so far have been ad hoc relying on unstructured observation, which makes it difficult to extract reliable conclusions from observations and to draw comparisons between different games. In this paper we present two methods developed specifically for evaluating the player experience in children's outdoor games: the Outdoor Play Observation Scheme (OPOS) and GroupSorter. We discuss their application in three different case studies and conclude that OPOS is useful in quantifying the different types of play behavior in outdoor games; GroupSorter adds qualitative data on the play experience. Moreover, the application of GroupSorter is not limited to game development but can be used for obtaining user input in other context as well. Ó

The stone age trail: A mobile outdoors computer game for nature experience

2010

The Stone Age trail: A mobile outdoors computer game for nature experience Technology can assist people as they pursue different kinds of nature experience. Some systems developed have been made for learning, social activities, and leisure. Our aim is to explore how to make use of the theoretical frameworks of embodied interaction and technology as experience in the design and reflection process of creating an interactive system that have the potential to augment visitors' experience of Tyresta national park. Design activities included contextual inquiries, sketching, prototyping and user testing. Two handheld computers and physical information boards were used in the prototype of a mobile outdoors game. The theoretical frameworks were used to set design objectives that could guide the design. When designing for nature experience we argue that one should design for an activity. The designed system should also be open for diverse ways of usage

What motivates children to play outdoors? Potential applications for interactive digital tools

Children (8-12 years) living in urban, western contexts are increasingly spending their free time indoors engaging in digital recreation, rather than outdoor, child-directed play. There is potential for place-specific, digital technology to be designed to motivate children ‘off the couch’ and outdoors into their local natural places. This paper presents the outcomes of three workshops conducted with eleven children (8-12 years) in Aalborg, Denmark, designed to understand key motivators for outdoor play in children. Children were divided into five design groups. Fictional inquiry and a series of artifacts and triggers were used to communicate the design task to children and inspire a range of relevant designs. Here, we report on the design outcomes of workshops, the motivators for outdoor play, and potential applications for interactive digital technology to inspire more regular, outdoor play experiences in children.

Requirements and Game Ideas for Social Interaction in Mobile Outdoor Games

Extended Abstracts Publication of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play - CHI PLAY '17 Extended Abstracts, 2017

Challenging neighbourhoods in large cities most often lack social coherence. Meaningful social interaction between citizens in such neighbourhoods is needed to increase coherence, and games may be a means to this end. This paper reflects on the structure of a dedicated game design workshop with teenagers from 12 to 16 years of age designed to this purpose. The relevance of both the identified requirements and the emergent game ideas are presented and discussed together with directions for future work for design of games for social interaction through participation.

On the design of Camelot, an outdoor game for children

Proceeding of the 2006 conference on Interaction design and children - IDC '06, 2006

This paper describes the design of Camelot, a mobile outdoor game for small groups of children aged 7-9. The game was designed with the aim to encourage social interaction between the players and to encourage physical activity. The paper extends the research literature on design methodology for children, by recording and reflecting upon the lessons learnt by applying a range of techniques for involving children in the design of interactive systems.

Participatory digital gameplay narrative design for public space sustainability management: empirical research with primary school children

Conjunctions

This paper reports results of completed research with primary school children which took place in Athens, Greece. Children engaged in designing the play experience of digital mini-games corresponding to episodes/missions of an entire plot. The games were coded by the school teacher on low-end mobile phones using AppInventor and were then played by children designers and testers. The game plot concerned restoring management rules for a public space (an urban park), along sustainability principles. The results focused on the participation processes of children in critical game narrative design, and decision-making about public space management alternatives to embed in game narrative design.

Game-related enjoyment or personal pre-requisites – which is the crucial factor when using geogames to encourage adolescents to value local biodiversity

International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 2018

Geogames are mobile, location-based and location dependent games for devices like smartphones and tablets. As geogames are played outdoors they offer various possibilities for environmental education. The geogame entitled FindeVielfalt Simulation is a location dependent game, developed in the BioDiv2Go project, which provides sensory experiences, discovering local biodiversity and increasing biodiversity-related knowledge and attitudes toward nature. The aim of this study is to examine the predictive potential of game-related enjoyment and of personal prerequisites (such as general ecological behaviour) on outcomes measuring acquisition of knowledge and attitude. Hierarchical regressions are used to investigate the dependencies of the constructs. The results demonstrate that an increase in biodiversity-related knowledge is neither predicted by previous attitudes nor by game-related enjoyment. Every player within the game was able to learn irrespective of personal prerequisites or game-enjoyment. However, the results also demonstrate that an increase in attitude toward nature is significantly influenced by game-related enjoyment and general ecological behaviour, with game-related enjoyment being the stronger predictor.

Heljakka, K. & Ihamäki, P. (2018) Designing an Urban Adventure Gamescape: Avoiding the Pitfalls in Creating Opportunities for Learning Through Location-Based Games Introduction: Location-based Play in a Gamified World

This paper reports on the design and evaluation of player experiences related to a Location-Based Game. Location-based games (or LBGs) seek to move gamified play into the " real world " of cities, parks and other locations. These games are played in everyday places, where game information is tied to specific locations (Magerkurth et al. 2005). This connection to real-world physicality makes the game experience multidimensional and fun for players of different ages. Yet, to be able to envision and create an urban gamescape means that a set of criteria is met. The unique challenge of creating and orchestrating location-based game experiences requires a certain sensitivity of its designers to multiple factors that must be considered. These may include but are not limited to factors such as the city infrastructure, flows of urban traffic, maintenance of recreational areas and human-related factors such as cooperation with the city administration. The game introduced in the paper represents an urban game adventure built upon the platform of geocaching. We approach the game with a focus on its potential learning affordances. We ask how the pitfalls in creating opportunities for learning through location-based games could be avoided, especially when designing pedagogic aims into an urban gaming experience fit for school-aged children.