Designing tangible objects for children’s development andlearning has been a common theme in the HCI community.However, studies involving designing of tangibles fortoddlers’ hedonic interaction and play experiences havebeen few. This paper explores how toddlers (between oneand three years old) behave when interacting with tangibleplay objects in the context of open-ended play. The aim ofthis study was to explore how the integration ofmultisensory stimuli and multimodal feedback in tangibleobjects can affect toddlers’ play, behaviors and engagementin the context of open-ended play. Furthermore, two playobjects called Sound Cubes were developed and used in aninteraction study conducted at a preschool in Stockholm.The results presented in this paper suggest that the openendedplay objects provided toddlers with opportunity formultiple manipulations that lead to interesting interactions.Moreover, multimodal feedback and multisensory stimulicreated a positive affect on toddlers’ engagement in play.

The application of digital elements to traditional playgrounds can enhance children’s outdoor play and counteract the growing trend of sedentary activities. This work reports the implementation and evaluation of a playground installation which looks at sound as the modality that can provide new and engaging play experiences. The design of this system follows an open-ended approach that let the children create their own emerging game goals and rules. The sound design is first tested in a lab setting and later on in a Swedish preschool, with a particular focus on the stages of play (invitation, exploration, and immersion). 38 children between 2 and 6 years old participated in a field study that lasted for three days. Children’s engagement over time was quantified and field notes were taken during the whole evaluation. None of the children between 2 and 3 years old reached the immersion stage. On the other hand, children between 4 and 6 years old created their own rules showing parallel and collaborative play and, in some occasions, solitary play. The sound modality chosen proved to be effective to encourage children’s play in a first place. In a longer engagement perspective, the soundscape partly supported an immersive play. The selection of the sounds to be integrated in the system demonstrated to be as fundamental as the physical appearance of the playground installation. The results of this study show how the visual and auditory modalities can be effective in an open-ended interactive playground and report the limitations of this design. / Additionen av digitala element till traditionella lekplatser kan förstärka barns utomhuslek och motverka den växande trenden av stillasittande aktiviteter. Detta arbete beskriver genomförandet och utvärderingen av en lekplatsinstallation med ljud i fokus som den modalitet som kan tillhandahålla nya och engagerande lekupplevelser. Utformningen av denna lekplatsinstallation skedde ur ett fri lek-perspektiv där barn skapar egna mål och regler till sin lek. Ljuddesignen är först testad i en laboratoriemiljö och senare i en svensk förskola, med särskilt fokus på lekfaserna (invit-fasen, utforskande-fasen och uppslukad-fasen). 38 barn mellan 2 och 6 år deltog in en fältstudie som varade i tre dagar. Barns engagemang över tid kvantifierades och noteringar togs under hela utvärderingen. Inga av barnen mellan 2 och 3 år nådde uppslukad-fasen. Å andra sidan skapade barn mellan 4 och 6 år egna regler som visar på parallell och samspelslek och i några fall ensamlek. Den valda ljudmodaliteten visade sig vara effektiv för att uppmuntra barns lek till en början. På längre sikt understödde ljudlandskapet delvis lek av uppslukad karaktär. Valet av ljud integrerat i systemet visade sig vara lika fundamental som den fysiska uppenbarelsen av lekplatsinstallationen. Resultaten av denna studie visar hur de visuella och auditoriska modaliteterna effektivt kan vara designade i en interaktiv lekplats för öppen lek, och begränsningarna av denna design rapporteras.