Abstract
In the past, researchers in child-computer interaction teamed up with children, involved as users, testers, informants, or design partners, to support the design of future technology with children’s contributions. In recent years, researchers pointed out that design with children should be evaluated in relation not only to its tangible outcomes but also to its participants’ benefits. Novel roles for children emerged, which focus on different benefits or empowerment opportunities for children in design. In line with this perspective, researchers in technology-enhanced learning moved from design with children to design by children: they framed design for children into stages with supporting toolkits and focused on measurable benefits in the design process. This thesis starts from this research and focuses on the design of smart things by children.
The thesis proposes a model for framing smart-thing design by children and a companion toolkit, named SNaP. Existing toolkits for designing smart things focus on one design stage or another, e.g., ideation or programming. Moreover, design models tend not to explicitly scaffold children’s usage of the toolkits so that children can work on their own in design. Instead, SNaP frames the entire design of smart things and guides children through their exploration, ideation, programming and prototyping with its toolkit. By embracing action research, the SNaP model and toolkit were adopted in actions with children, namely, design workshops.
Results of actions were reflected over by considering children’s benefits (e.g., their engagement and learning of smart-thing design), and they were used to make SNaP evolve across cycles of action, reflection and development.
The PhD reports on the evolution cycles, starting from initial exploratory studies in the 2018 cycle, and ending with the most recent cycles for continuing smart-thing design by children during COVID-19 times. The PhD concludes with general reflections concerning design by children.