Digital fun: maximizing the enjoyment of youth playspaces

This project explored the “fun” of youth digital play through a custom built interactive playtool. This research is based in the developmental value of play for children, the changes to youth play that have taken place as interactions have become increasingly digital, and the design benefits of unobtrusive interfaces. Using academic research sources from both paediatric occupational therapists and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) specialists, a variety of parameters were developed to maximize the developmental value and fun of digital play. These parameters created a guideline of design considerations for the target users of children six to nine years old. An open-ended Natural User Interface (NUI) was designed and built that encourages explorative interactions as a method of understanding its use. User testing was then used to establish if the open-ended play was evaluated as more “fun” than more traditional collaborative or competitive gaming.