In recent years an increasing awareness has been posed on the relationship between gender and gam... more In recent years an increasing awareness has been posed on the relationship between gender and game design. Starting from the question about “What a feminist perspective can bring to the design of video games?”, this paper describes a case study about the application of feminist methodologies into a game design workshop. Through the description of the methods used in the workshop, our research suggests how methodological contributions could represent a crucial element for critically reformulating game design and expanding the possible imaginaries and practices.
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children - IDC '15, 2015
ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to explore techniques to design specific gestures with children... more ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to explore techniques to design specific gestures with children to improve the interaction design of a Full-Body Interaction Learning Environment. This exploratory case study is part of the EcoSystem Project, a learning environment aimed at supporting children’s understanding of environmental issues related to air-pollution. In order to involve children in the design of the physical interaction with the system, we used two different techniques to facilitate the design of gestures: “sketching through the body” and “sketching with puppets”. The results indicate that children adopted different strategies to design gestures for each technique. Within them, the most effective approach was related to the switch between performing gestures with their own bodies and simulating those gestures with puppets. This finding indicates the potential of those Participatory Design methods which combine multi-modal resources as instruments to allow children to reflect upon their own knowledge and express it more precisely.
Proceedings of the extended abstracts of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI EA '14, 2014
ABSTRACT Mapocci is a robotic companion for children, created in the juncture of digital art and ... more ABSTRACT Mapocci is a robotic companion for children, created in the juncture of digital art and HCI practices. It was developed during an art residency program at Telefonica R+D. The dynamics of negotiation and collaboration with the R+D team transformed the objectives and methods of the art project. This case study shows this transformation process as well as the contribution that the digital art methods brought to the R+D team framework and vice versa in the HCI project.
Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology - ACE '14, 2014
ABSTRACT The paper presents an exploratory study aimed toward including children in the design of... more ABSTRACT The paper presents an exploratory study aimed toward including children in the design of an Interactive Learning Environment based on Full-Body Interaction. The study proposes a method based on using Participatory Design techniques to analyze core meanings and misconceptions of children. The aim is to identify appropriate learning goals and to define concepts capable of bridging between children’s knowledge and novel contents. Furthermore, it explores a novel approach aimed at fostering designmethods suitable for a Full-Body Interaction experience. The results show the benefits of the method in defining guidelines for a first design proposal of a Learning Environment based on environmental education.
Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Interaction design and children - IDC '14, 2014
ABSTRACT In recent years there has been an increasing awareness about the importance of involving... more ABSTRACT In recent years there has been an increasing awareness about the importance of involving children with special needs in the process of designing technology. Starting from this perspective, the paper presents the participatory design process carried out with children with autistic spectrum disorder for the design of a Kinect motion-based game aimed at fostering social initiation skills. By describing the strategies used for the design of the activities, we will suggest possible approaches aimed toward widening the space for contributions of children and including them at a more creative level. Within that, major emphasis will be dedicated to discussing the “empowering dimension” of participatory design activities as an instrument to enhance benefits both for design results and for the children themselves. Finally, the balance between structure and freedom in the design of the activities will be discussed.
We present a qualitative, idiographic study aimed at exploring how children create bridges betwee... more We present a qualitative, idiographic study aimed at exploring how children create bridges between embodied experience and meaning construction while interacting with a Full-Body Interaction Learning Environment. Starting from the analysis of four case studies, we illustrate different possible paths through which children can transform embodied experience into an 'object–to-think-with' and delineate the different resources for meaning making that they employed. These outcomes contribute to expand the current understanding around embodied learning with interactive technologies, as well as suggest a set of qualities to think about interaction design and future research.
In recent years an increasing awareness has been posed on the relationship between gender and gam... more In recent years an increasing awareness has been posed on the relationship between gender and game design. Starting from the question about “What a feminist perspective can bring to the design of video games?”, this paper describes a case study about the application of feminist methodologies into a game design workshop. Through the description of the methods used in the workshop, our research suggests how methodological contributions could represent a crucial element for critically reformulating game design and expanding the possible imaginaries and practices.
Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children - IDC '15, 2015
ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to explore techniques to design specific gestures with children... more ABSTRACT The aim of this paper is to explore techniques to design specific gestures with children to improve the interaction design of a Full-Body Interaction Learning Environment. This exploratory case study is part of the EcoSystem Project, a learning environment aimed at supporting children’s understanding of environmental issues related to air-pollution. In order to involve children in the design of the physical interaction with the system, we used two different techniques to facilitate the design of gestures: “sketching through the body” and “sketching with puppets”. The results indicate that children adopted different strategies to design gestures for each technique. Within them, the most effective approach was related to the switch between performing gestures with their own bodies and simulating those gestures with puppets. This finding indicates the potential of those Participatory Design methods which combine multi-modal resources as instruments to allow children to reflect upon their own knowledge and express it more precisely.
Proceedings of the extended abstracts of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI EA '14, 2014
ABSTRACT Mapocci is a robotic companion for children, created in the juncture of digital art and ... more ABSTRACT Mapocci is a robotic companion for children, created in the juncture of digital art and HCI practices. It was developed during an art residency program at Telefonica R+D. The dynamics of negotiation and collaboration with the R+D team transformed the objectives and methods of the art project. This case study shows this transformation process as well as the contribution that the digital art methods brought to the R+D team framework and vice versa in the HCI project.
Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology - ACE '14, 2014
ABSTRACT The paper presents an exploratory study aimed toward including children in the design of... more ABSTRACT The paper presents an exploratory study aimed toward including children in the design of an Interactive Learning Environment based on Full-Body Interaction. The study proposes a method based on using Participatory Design techniques to analyze core meanings and misconceptions of children. The aim is to identify appropriate learning goals and to define concepts capable of bridging between children’s knowledge and novel contents. Furthermore, it explores a novel approach aimed at fostering designmethods suitable for a Full-Body Interaction experience. The results show the benefits of the method in defining guidelines for a first design proposal of a Learning Environment based on environmental education.
Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Interaction design and children - IDC '14, 2014
ABSTRACT In recent years there has been an increasing awareness about the importance of involving... more ABSTRACT In recent years there has been an increasing awareness about the importance of involving children with special needs in the process of designing technology. Starting from this perspective, the paper presents the participatory design process carried out with children with autistic spectrum disorder for the design of a Kinect motion-based game aimed at fostering social initiation skills. By describing the strategies used for the design of the activities, we will suggest possible approaches aimed toward widening the space for contributions of children and including them at a more creative level. Within that, major emphasis will be dedicated to discussing the “empowering dimension” of participatory design activities as an instrument to enhance benefits both for design results and for the children themselves. Finally, the balance between structure and freedom in the design of the activities will be discussed.
We present a qualitative, idiographic study aimed at exploring how children create bridges betwee... more We present a qualitative, idiographic study aimed at exploring how children create bridges between embodied experience and meaning construction while interacting with a Full-Body Interaction Learning Environment. Starting from the analysis of four case studies, we illustrate different possible paths through which children can transform embodied experience into an 'object–to-think-with' and delineate the different resources for meaning making that they employed. These outcomes contribute to expand the current understanding around embodied learning with interactive technologies, as well as suggest a set of qualities to think about interaction design and future research.
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Papers by laura malinverni