Swirly: For Technology Supported Collaborative Pretend Play, Just Add Water

Pretend play is vital for fun and learning, but compared with other play types, appears under-explored by technology developers, particularly regarding multi-user toys. Playing with water offers rich full-bodied collaborative experiences, but very little interaction design has sought to exploit children’s timeless fascination with water. This paper describes Swirly: a large multi-user splash controller designed to foster collaborative make-believe. Dynamic lighting on the internal surface of this wobble-able vessel responds to users manipulating the water contained. An initial user tests suggest great promise for combining electronics with water to foster active new social pretend play experiences. Based on this we offer several suggestions for designing digital-water social pretend play experiences.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Larissa Nägele

Randi Jessen

Robb Mitchell

Conference

Publication date: July 2018

Publication date (Print): July 2018

Pages: 1-5

Affiliations

[0001]University of Southern Denmark

Kolding DK 6000

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.121

SO-VID: f88cc16c-3943-4933-9196-357c1edb45ee

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of the 32nd International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 32

Conference location: Belfast, UK

Conference date: 4 - 6 July 2018

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Human Computer Interaction Conference

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.121

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

References

T. Bekker J. Sturm B. Eggen 2010 Designing playful interactions for social interaction and physical play Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 14 385–396.
L.E. Berk T.D. Mann A.T. Ogan 2006 Make-believe play: Wellspring for development of self-regulation Play= learning: How play motivates and enhances children’s cognitive and social-emotional growth 74–100.
J. Cassell K. Ryokai 2001 Making Space for Voice: Technologies to Support Children’s Fantasy and Storytelling Personal Ub Comp 5 169–190 http://doi.org/10.1007/PL00000018
S. Gainsley 2011 Look, Listen, Touch, Feel, Taste: The Importance of Sensory Play 12.
S. Gascoyne 2016 Sensory play: Play in the EYFS Andrews UK Limited.
L. Geurts V.V. Abeele 2012 Splash Controllers: Game Controllers Involving the Uncareful Manipulation of Water, in: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction TEI ’12 ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 183–186.
D. Howes 2005 Empire of the Senses: The Sensual Culture Reader Bloomsbury Academic.
V.G. Paley 2009 A child’s work: The importance of fantasy play institutionUniversity of Chicago Press .
N. Parés J. Durany A. Carreras 2005 Massive Flux Design for an Interactive Water Installation: Water Games, in: Proceedings of the 2005 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology ACE ’05 ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 266–269.
L. Plowman C. Stephen J. McPake 2010 Growing Up With Technology: Young Children Learning in a Digital World Routledge.
W.L. Raffe M. Tamassia F. Zambetta X. Li S.J. Pell F. Mueller “Floyd,” 2015 Player-Computer Interaction Features for Designing Digital Play Experiences Across Six Degrees of Water Contact, in: Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY ’15 ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 295–305.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] T. Bekker J. Sturm B. Eggen 2010 Designing playful interactions for social interaction and physical play Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 14 385–396.

[2] L.E. Berk T.D. Mann A.T. Ogan 2006 Make-believe play: Wellspring for development of self-regulation Play= learning: How play motivates and enhances children’s cognitive and social-emotional growth 74–100.

[3] J. Cassell K. Ryokai 2001 Making Space for Voice: Technologies to Support Children’s Fantasy and Storytelling Personal Ub Comp 5 169–190 http://doi.org/10.1007/PL00000018

[4] S. Gainsley 2011 Look, Listen, Touch, Feel, Taste: The Importance of Sensory Play 12.

[5] S. Gascoyne 2016 Sensory play: Play in the EYFS Andrews UK Limited.

[6] L. Geurts V.V. Abeele 2012 Splash Controllers: Game Controllers Involving the Uncareful Manipulation of Water, in: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction TEI ’12 ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 183–186.

[7] D. Howes 2005 Empire of the Senses: The Sensual Culture Reader Bloomsbury Academic.

[8] V.G. Paley 2009 A child’s work: The importance of fantasy play institutionUniversity of Chicago Press .

[9] N. Parés J. Durany A. Carreras 2005 Massive Flux Design for an Interactive Water Installation: Water Games, in: Proceedings of the 2005 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology ACE ’05 ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 266–269.

[10] L. Plowman C. Stephen J. McPake 2010 Growing Up With Technology: Young Children Learning in a Digital World Routledge.

[11] W.L. Raffe M. Tamassia F. Zambetta X. Li S.J. Pell F. Mueller “Floyd,” 2015 Player-Computer Interaction Features for Designing Digital Play Experiences Across Six Degrees of Water Contact, in: Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY ’15 ACM, New York, NY, USA, pp. 295–305.

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