Designing Tangibles for Children: One Day Hands-on Workshop

This hands-on workshop introduces a foundation for designing tangibles for children. Participants engage in a low-fidelity design challenge using the iPad Osmo system. We focus on how designing tangibles for children is unique from other design problems and processes. We walk participants through an outcome driven design process using the award winning Developmentally Situated Design (DSD) card set -- focusing on cognitive, emotional, physical, and social skills specific to children at different ages. Small groups create solutions for the same design challenge, but focus on the skills and abilities of a specific age group. We facilitate a compare and contrast exercise of their solutions to help synthesize the complexities of, and showcase skills for, designing child-centric tangibles. Participants are encouraged to review the DSD II cards in advance, available at www.antle.iat.sfu.ca/DSD, as well the papers [1, 2, 3], to get the most out of their workshop experience. These artifacts and papers will be used to within the workshop for hands-on learning and conceptual discussions.