ENCOURAGING IN-CLASS EXERCISE
proJECT Active
Overview
This project was the final result of a class called User Experience Design for Children. The goal was to apply our design process in understanding children's needs and desires. There was a variety of sponsors for the class, and we chose to work with Seattle Childrens Hospital to help encourage physical activity in kids that have ADHD. We ended up having to pivot several times due to road blocks that would have been impossible to overcome, but it was a great learning experience in quickly adapting plans to still get a good result.
INITIAL REASEARCH
Literature Review
To begin, we did independent research around children and exercise. We discovered 3 main points that we wanted to bring up with our project sponsors at Seattle Children's Hospital
To begin, we did independent research around children and exercise. We discovered 3 main points that we wanted to bring up with our project sponsors at Seattle Children's Hospital
1
Habits around exercise that children make when they are 3 to 5 years old stick with them throughout their adult lives
Habits around exercise that children make when they are 3 to 5 years old stick with them throughout their adult lives
2
People have misconceptions around how much exercise children get. Children should get 120 minutes of activity a day, and this is rarely the case.
People have misconceptions around how much exercise children get. Children should get 120 minutes of activity a day, and this is rarely the case.
3
There are several barriers preventing children from getting exercise, including cost of sports programs, safety concerns, and reduced access to facilities.
There are several barriers preventing children from getting exercise, including cost of sports programs, safety concerns, and reduced access to facilities.
EXPERT INSIGHT
Interviewing at Seattle Children's
We set up an interview with an assiociate of Dr. Pooja Tandon, David Thomas, to inquire about her research around activity with preschool children entitled Project PLAY. Project PLAY stands for Preschoolers Learning and Active in Play. Children in this age range (3 to 5 years old) learn the best through play, so their initiative takes the ideas of play, activity, and learning and goes to preschools to help them lead the students and parents to healthier lifestyles. Participants get activity tracking wristbands for Seattle Children's to assess their program's effectiveness. To learn more, go to Seattle Children's site on the topic.
In our interview, we discovered that childcare centers are becoming more and more common, and especially low-income communities, children only get an average of 30 to 45 minutes of activity for the 8 hours they are at the facility. They are attempting to target these communities to change the children's trajectory of a sedentary lifestyle into a more active one. We also learned that a barrier to overcome that is semi-unique to Seattle is the fear that children playing in the light rain will compromise their immune system. Although there is no scientific evidence to back up this fear, the PLAY program has to be creative in finding ways to encourage activity indoors.
During this interview, we realized that designing for ADHD children was too specific and challenging, due to restrictions on medical records, so we broadened our user group to all 3 to 5 year olds.
Group picture in the lobby of one of Seattle Children's facilities in downtown Seattle
Talking to Kidz Team
At the University of Washington in the Informatics Degree program, one of the professors hosts Kidz Team, which is a prgram where children ages 7 to 12 are invited to participate in the design process. This initiative is designed around understanding the thought process and how children think, as well as to expose children to design thinking to apply to their lives.
Although these children were older than our age range, we were able to gain insights into what they think would motivate them to be more active. They all enjoyed technology (especially video games), and most of them talked about different animals, which we incorporated into our design. It was intersting to work with them in this environment, and each child had a different way of expessing their thought process. The girl on the left in the pictures below was telling me a story on how she and her friends would go through playing by drawing pictures and connecting the process with lines, while the children to the right had a feature-based discussion with one of my group members.
DIVERGENT THINKING
Requirements and Brainstorming
With all the information we gathered, we created design requirements for our design:
- Our design should be applicable across all schools in the program, not just one of the schools.
- Our design should be able to increase physical activity inside.
- Our design should be able to increase activity in small spaces.
- Our design should be usable for teachers with high student to teacher ratios.
- Our design should be simple and easy to understand.
Brainstorm Sketches
To start off, we took the time to sketch out different ideas for our project as a group. The slider above has about 40 images of the sketches we completed, but the most compelling of the lot was the following:
To start off, we took the time to sketch out different ideas for our project as a group. The slider above has about 40 images of the sketches we completed, but the most compelling of the lot was the following:
The idea was to have a projector hanging from the ceiling to project a game onto the floor that encourages activity. This would be great as there could be multiple games that could be played, and most classrooms already have a projector in them, so it would be a matter of creating a low cost way to easily attach it to the ceiling.
PROOF OF CONCEPT
Low-Fi Prototype
Since the kids we talked to in Kidz Team were very into animals, we decided to tie a frog and lily pads into our game. The general idea of our game at this point was to have lily pads moving around the floor for the kids to jump around on.
Our Low-Fi prototype was created in Scratch, which is a programming languange that is geared toward teaching children how to learn the concepts of computer programming. We used this because it is fast to create things, and we wanted to be able to quickly find a working design and implementation.
GAINING INSIGHTS
User Testing
After we had our concept set in stone, my team created higher quality visuals. While they were doing that, I set out to code a website utlizing HTML, CSS, and Javascript to create a demo to user test. We also futhered developed the rules to the game, where different colored lily pads were worth different amounts of points, and we had the lily pads grey out while they move so they had to remember what color each one is before they turn back into color.
User Test Clip
The two children in the video are two and seven years old, both just on the outside of our 3 to 5 year old age range. The first thing we noted was that they did not really like our rules to the game and generally ignored them. However, we were plesantly surprised that they enjoyed simply jumping around on the lily pads. They enjoyed playing together with it so much that after 30 to 45 minutes, their parents had a hard time getting them to stop so they could pack up and leave.
PREPARING FOR SHOWCASE
High-Fi Prototype
The high fidelity prototype mainly had a visual update. We also added a frog to the top right corner that acted as the "play" button. When you press the frog, the lily pads move around for 10 seconds before switching back to their colored state. We also had the lilies flash before stopping to give the user time to process what color they are on.
If you want to play with this yourself, feel free to go to my Github website: https://benwagnerwilkins.github.io/.
PROFESSIONAL CRITIQUE
Showcase and Results
Overall, the judges at the showcase had positive outtakes on our project. They appreciated that we did not try to do too much in our given timeframe, but executed what we did accomplish really well. They also enjoyed seeing the kids in the video of the user test enjoy playing with our prototype. However, some judges were not convinced on the reality of hanging projectors on the ceiling of preschool classrooms, as our projector was wrapped up in rope and ziptied to a beam. They thought there could be a way to do it, but would have liked to see us think through it a little bit more. They would have also liked to see more games thought out, but understood the time constraints on the project. One last critique that was prevalent is that they would have appreciated if we tested in an actual preschool classroom.
Our Projector Setup
We ended up getting 3rd place out of about 20 projects, and we were extremely satisfied with the results. However, there are a couple things I would have liked to have done differently if I were to do the project again.
Do Differently
1
Have a Stronger Partnership with Seattle Children's
Over the course of this project, our partnership with Seattle Children's dwindled. Scheduling and communication was hard to line up with our group, so we ended up having to go forth without them, and I think our project would have been stronger with their input.
2
Testing in a Classroom
We reached out to several preschools, but there was lots of policies in place that made it difficult for them to accommodate us. If we had more time to plan this, I think we would have gained more insight.
3
Ceiling Attachment
It was a hastle to find a way to hang the projector pointed downward from the ceiling. It would have been neat if we could have prototyped an easier way to accomplish this so it would be more convincing that this is a feasible idea.
Bea Wagner-Wilkins
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