In my thesis project I explored the possibilities to enhance playful development in early childhood through physical-digital play experiences. During the research phase of this project I had the chance to learn from parents of young kids, experts in early childhood education as well as industry professionals from my collaboration partner Stokke. I found out that especially in the first years of early childhood, the abilities, interests and personalities of children change rapidly. Children tend to outgrow one-dimensional play experiences and unused toys pile up fast as parents constantly try to offer new playful learning experiences for their kids. While I established in my research that technology introduced in the right way can have great benefits for playful development in early childhood, I also found out that tech-enabled products for the youngest often get stigmatized as harmful and have to be designed in a child-friendly way so that parents can introduce them without feeling guilty. I discovered that kids develop best during play activities when other humans are involved. But shared play experiences for families are rare as both kids and parents live busy lives that often leave no room for free and expressive play together. My concept the Stokke Playpad builds on all of these research findings and offers a wide range of different play activities in one single product platform. Placed on the floor it creates a versatile play surface, where pressure sensors embedded in the textile work as input for different play experiences and visual (LED) as well as audiofeedback (speaker) help to facilitate playful interactions that children can understand. The Playpad is designed to fit the life of young families - it is portable, flexible to use, easy to set up, child-proof in its materiality, washable and convenient to store away after play. As it creates a spatial play environment it enables both shared play with others as well as independent solitary play. Activities can be chosen by the parents based on the kid‘s age, interest or playing situation and children can also choose, change and play independently on their own. The variety of play experiences this mat can offer keeps it attractive to play with throughout childhood and the play disc system allows parents to upgrade and buy new activities over time, so that they can offer their kids more play with less toys. The different play activities range from free and explorative play for the youngest to musical experiences or preschool learning games. This variety of activities brings great educational value through cognitive, creative as well as physical play. The spatial setup leads to more body movement during play which can have positive impact on health and development of young children and creates new opportunities for shared play that deepens the relationship between kid and parents. The Playpad is a multifunctional play platform that can grow with the changing abilities of children during early childhood. It bridges the gap between analog and digital play and provides a vision of how technology can enhance playful development during early childhood if integrated in a meaningful way.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-198385 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Kindler, Marius Werner |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Designhögskolan vid Umeå universitet |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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