CHILDREN
GROWTH
INFORMATICS Photo source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/eusoudaniel/2344561300/
Photo source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/eusoudaniel/6816229366
INTRODUCTION Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/2527797383
The design problem is around personal informatics. I began my work with interviews and observations. I conducted four online interviews and four phone interviews with parents and children. In total, there are four parents and two children getting involved in this study. Then I started my collection of exemplars of personal informatics tools, and made design critiques on those tools. During the research, I found that nowadays, more are more parents begin to take
records to track the growth of their children. The varieties of tools that parents use are also growing, especially in the age of 21 century. What did parents tracking? What tools did they use? What are they expecting from the cutting-edge technology? What could I do to help them design better tools to track the growth and development of their children?
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INTERVIEW PARENTS
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In order to get a better idea about parents’ concerns and problems, I interviewed with five parents. Four of them are from the United Stated, one is from China. Most (60%) of them have two children, 20% have three and another 20% have only one daughter. Interview questions in this round of survey are mostly about parenting and the usage of personal informatics tools on parenting and keeping records for children. Consider, for instance, the questions include:
the name of tools, the advantages and disadvantages of those tools. It turns out that most parents care about the growth of their children very much and would love to find more convenient tools. Most of them are still using pens and notebooks to keep records. Most parents will keep record of the height, weight and head size of children, as well as the progress children are making, (potting training, rolling over, crawling, walking, vocalizing, first words, laughing,
learning alphabet, and numbers jumping, running, emotional aspects, imaginary play). After conducting this round of interview, I got lots of great insights and began to generate design concepts.
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COLLECTION Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/485583356
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[1] Cry Translater http://itunes.apple.com/app/cry-translator/ id332636983?mt=8 [2] Baby Log http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/baby-logactivities-growth/id401112090?mt=8 [3] Baby Journal http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/similacbaby-journal/id409894248?mt=8 [4] Baby Timer http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/baby-timer/ id315692413?mt=8
Then I began to collect the tools that are now used for children informatics. Most of my collections are mobile apps or websites. Most of the style of those design are focused on the digital version of logs, or digital album. Seldom design integrate the physical stuff that children use in daily life with the digital technology. This finding narrows my design direction again. I started sketching and prototyping on some of my concepts.
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LITERATURE Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/236299644
After the first round of interview, I did my literature review and read the book: The Design of Children’s technology (Druin, 1998). [1] In the second chapter--Kids of Informants, Mike and Yvonne posed the question”How to get children involved in the design process” and the benefits of children involvement. This inspires me to reach another group--children.
[2] Allison Druin, The Design of Children’s Technology,1998 http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/~ctg/classes/ techcog02/readings/kidsasinformants.pdf Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/5571730075
INTERVIEW CHILDREN
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hanieriani/6982440191/
Then I did my second round of interview with three students who are in their age of 23, 24 and 26. I asked them to recall their childhood memory, how their parents track their growth, which part of memory is the most cherished, what kinds of information that they want to record. From the children’s point of view, it turns out that more interesting information need to be recorded, consider, for instance, the changing hair style, the distance that they
are away from home, the collection of toys, the games that they played, etc. From this point, my scope of problem changed from the parenting tools for baby to the children growth informatic tools.
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INSIGHTS Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/305742748
RECORD EMOTION CLOSENESS 1. Parents would like to take as much and as specific of their children’s information as possible. “Height, weight, head size, developmental things like rolling over, crawling, walking, vocalizing, first words, laughing, learning alphabet” 2. There is a big room of improvement on the digital devices to help parents record their children’s information. “We haven’t used any apps, though it would be an interesting way to record the information.”
4. Growth record could trigger strong emotion, especially for parents and children.
7. Growth record is a good way to foster closeness among family members. “Looking at the world through the eye of a 5. Childhood memory is a good source to kid is just great.” trigger emotion. 8. Parents enjoy raising children and would 6. The development of digital technology like to grow with their children helps people to take record of memory “Everyday’s a brand new adventure!” and emotion.
3. It would be convenient to intergrate digital devices with children’s everyday stuff. Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ pinksherbet/6816232762
SYSTEM OF CONCEPTS
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RECORD EMOTION CLOSENESS TREE STATION
EMOTION ANALYSIS BABYCART
CONNECTION OUTFIT
INTERACTION CRAWLING MAT
BETTER SLEEP PILLOW
SISTER-BROTHER BADGE
SOUND SCARF WORD MAP MILKING BOTTLE HAIRSTYLE MIRROR Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mar1lyn84/5285634833
CONCEPTS Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/6733392791
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adwriter/398229892
1
TREE STATION
This trees station is the place for children to measure their height and weight. Also, there is a 3D camera on the tree, when the kid approaching the tree, it will take a picture of the kid and take down the information of the current height, weight, head
size, etc of the kid. After that, a new leaf with image and information will growing on the tree and be put on the same height of the kid.
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ zupidesign/4150418434
2
INTERACTION CRAWLING MAT
This interaction crawling mat is designed pear on the mat. At the same time, the movfor help children to learn how to crawl and ing trace and the total pace of children will walk. Children could follow the trace of the be recorded and sent to parents. moving image on the interactive mat and use his hands and feet to touch it. After the kid get to the point, a new point will ap-
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zupidesign/4138044569
3
SOUND SCARF
This scarf could function as a recorder. go back to this sound memory box and reWhen kids wear the scarf, it could take play those sounds. some sound randomly and mark the time and place of the sound. This collection of sound in different age will be sent to a sound memory box. Parents of kid could
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ zupidesign/4146500417
4
WORD MAP
This design will keep record of where and the kid growing up and look back at this when the kid speak one word in the first map, he will find it interesting and get a lot time. For instance, the kid speak ”apple of memories of his childhood. ” when he was two in the city garden and speak of “gauge” on his way to the market. These information will be recorded. After
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ zupidesign/4147259022
5
MILKING BOTTLE
This bottle could collect the information of baby drinking milk. It could make analysis on the eating habits of the kid and push notification to parents if something unusual happens.
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zupidesign/ 4138809674
6
HAIRSTYLE MIRROR
Young girls usually make a lot of changes on their hair style, with this mirror, it will keep record of the changing hair styles of girls in their childhood and put all the information into a hairstyle album.
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ zupidesign/4149658627
7
EMOTION ANALYSIS BABYCART
When baby is too young to speak, it’s usually hard to get his needs or emotion. They could only laugh or cry. Different sound of laughing and crying have different meaning. This emotion analysis baby cart has the function to make analysis about baby’s
emotion. There is a webcam placed on the top of the cart. It could take records of the facial expression and gestures of the baby in the cart and match the expression with the information in database and find what is the exact emotion of the baby. At the
same time, the result will be sent to parents if they are not in the same room of their babies. Parents could see the result and know what’s going on.
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ zupidesign/4152472151
8
BETTER SLEEP PILLOW
This pillow is designed to help children the pillow will take record of the sleeping get a better sleep. It could make analysis information of children. based on the brainwave of the kids. When the kid is going to wake up and have some specific needs, the information could be sent to the mobile devices of parents. Also,
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ zupidesign/4138809400
9
CONNECTION OUTFIT
This design intends to foster closeness be- get an idea about the body condition and tween parents and children. When they are some subtle changes of their kids. in the same place, the color and texture of the clothes will become the same. The color is decided by the body temperature and emotion of the child. The parents could
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ zupidesign/414650167
10
SISTER-BROTHER BADGE
This design is the encourage system between sisters and brothers. Kids could win a random badge if they win over their brothers and sisters on better eating habit, more outdoor activities, etc.
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zupidesign/4149659129
HONGYUAN JIANG 2012.4
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/2527797383