research-article

Open access

Embedded assumptions in design and Making projects with children

Authors:

Leena Ventä-Olkkonen,

Marianne Kinnula,

Heidi Hartikainen,

Netta IivariAuthors Info & Claims

OzCHI '20: Proceedings of the 32nd Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

Pages 178 - 188

https://doi.org/10.1145/3441000.3441077

Published: 15 February 2021 Publication History

All formats PDF

Abstract

Previous literature highlights the importance of teaching children design and Making skills. However, there are fundamental differences in projects engaging children in design and Making, concerning the objects and motives of design. They vary depending on whether one emphasizes participatory design, user centered design, Making philosophy or entrepreneurship education, among others. In the first two, the emphasis is on the appreciation and engagement with the user, who is seen as separable from the designer. The third one often starts with solving one's own problems while the fourth one prioritizes the customer. In this paper, we analyze the existing literature and three of our own design and Making projects with children. We reveal diversity in the projects reported in the literature and challenges among children in our projects in understanding the design goals and practices, particularly relating to designing for oneself versus designing for others. We propose a categorization for mapping and managing this diversity.

References

[1]

Bekker, M., Julie Beusmans, David Keyson, Peter Lloyd, KidReporter: a user requirements gathering technique for designing with children, Interacting with Computers, Volume 15, Issue 2, April 2003, Pages 187–202, a

[2]

Bekker, T., Bakker, S., Douma, I., Van Der Poel, J., Scheltenaar, K. (2015). “Teaching children digital literacy through design-based learning with digital toolkits in schools.“ International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 5, September, 29-38.

[3]

Blikstein, P. 2013. Digital fabrication and ‘making’ in education: The democratization of invention. In FabLabs: Of machines, makers and inventors J. Walter-Herrmann and C. Büching (Eds.), 1-21

[4]

Browder 2014 ->Browder, R. E., Aldrich, H. E., & Bradley, S. W. (2017, January). Entrepreneurship research, makers, and the maker movement. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 1, p. 14361). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

[5]

Chu, S. L., Quek, F., Bhangaonkar, S., Ging, A. B., & Sridharamurthy, K. (2015). Making the Maker: A Means-to-an-Ends approach to nurturing the Maker mindset in elementary-aged children. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 5, 11-19.

Digital Library

[6]

Chu, S. L., Schlegel, R., Quek, F., Christy, A., & Chen, K. (2017, May). 'I Make, Therefore I Am' The Effects of Curriculum-Aligned Making on Children's Self-Identity. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 109-120).

Digital Library

[7]

Cockton, G. (2006). Designing worth is worth designing. In: NordiCHI’06. Proceedings of the 4th Nordic conference on Human-Computer Interaction, Oslo, Norway, October 14-18, 2006. ACM, pp. 165-174.

[8]

Dougherty, D. (2012). The maker movement. Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, 7(3), 11-14.

[9]

Dreessen, K., & Schepers, S. (2019). Foregrounding backstage activities for engaging children in a FabLab for STEM education. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 20, 35-42.

Digital Library

[10]

Druin, A. (1999, May). Cooperative inquiry: developing new technologies for children with children. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 592-599).

[11]

Druin, A. (2002). The role of children in the design of new technology. Behaviour and information technology, 21(1), 1-25.

[12]

Durães, D.A. (2015). “Gaming and Robotics to Transforming Learning.” Methodologies and Intelligent Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning, 51-56.

[13]

Eriksson, E., Torgersson, O., & Melin, A. (2018, June). Plan&do: a technology probe supporting children with intellectual disabilities in leisure activities. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children (pp. 663-668).

Digital Library

[14]

Fraunhofer, Elisabeth; Voigt, Christian & Schön, Sandra (2019). Towards a Model of Early Entrepreneurial Education: Appreciation, Facilitation and Evaluation. In Di Mascio, T., Vittorini, P., Gennari, R., De la Prieta, F., Rodríguez, S., Temperini, M., Azambuja Silveira, R., Popescu, E., Lancia, L. (Eds.), Methodologies and Intelligent Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning, 8th International Conference (pp. 139-146), retrieval date, from https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-98872-6 .

[15]

Gershenfeld, N. (2005). Fab: The coming revolution on your desktop—From personal computers to personal fabrication. New York: Basic Books.

Digital Library

[16]

Geser, G., Eva-Maria Hollauf, Hornung-Prähauser, V., Schön, S., & Vloet, F. (2019). Makerspaces as social innovation and entrepreneurship learning environments: The DOIT learning program. Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education, 10(2), 60-71.

[17]

Ginsburg, H. P., & Opper, S. (1988). Piaget's theory of intellectual development (3rd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

[18]

Gould, J. D., & Lewis, C. (1985). Designing for usability: key principles and what designers think. Communications of the ACM, 28(3), 300-311.

Digital Library

[19]

Greenbaum, J., & Kyng, M. (1992). Design at work: Cooperative design of computer systems. L. Erlbaum Associates Inc.

[20]

Guha 2014 ->Guha, M. L., Druin, A., & Fails, J. A. (2013). Cooperative Inquiry revisited: Reflections of the past and guidelines for the future of intergenerational co-design. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 1(1), 14-23.

[21]

Hanna, L., Risden, K., & Alexander, K. (1997). Guidelines for usability testing with children. interactions, 4(5), 9-14.

[22]

Hatch. M. 2014. The Maker Movement Manifesto. McGraw-Hill Education, New York.

[23]

Iivari, N., & Kinnula, M. (2018, August). Empowering children through design and making: towards protagonist role adoption. In Proceedings of the 15th Participatory Design Conference: Full Papers-Volume 1 (pp. 1-12).

Digital Library

[24]

Netta Iivari and Kari Kuutti. 2018. Critical design in interaction design and children: impossible, inappropriate or critical imperative?. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC '18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 456-464.

Digital Library

[25]

Iversen, O. S., Smith, R. C., & Dindler, C. (2017, June). Child as protagonist: Expanding the role of children in participatory design. In Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children (pp. 27-37).

Digital Library

[26]

Joshua G. Tanenbaum. Amanda M. Williams, Audrey Desjardins, Karen Tanenbaum. 2013. Democratizing technology: pleasure, utility and expressiveness in DIY and maker practice. In Proc. of ACM CHI’13, pp. 2603-2612

[27]

Katterfeldt, E. S., N. Dittert, and H. Schelhowe. 2015. Designing digital fabrication learning environments for Bildung: Implications from ten years of physical computing workshops. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction 5, 3-10.

[28]

Kinnula, M., Iivari, N., Isomursu, M., & Laari-Salmela, S. (2018). ‘Worksome but Rewarding’–Stakeholder Perceptions on Value in Collaborative Design Work. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 27(3-6), 463-494.

Digital Library

[29]

Kinnula, M., Iivari, N., Molin-Juustila, T., Keskitalo, E., Leinonen, T., Mansikkamäki, E., ... & Similä, M. (2017, December). Cooperation, Combat, or Competence Building - What Do We Mean When We Are'Empowering Children'in and through Digital Technology Design?. In ICIS.

[30]

Kouprie M. & Froukje Sleeswijk Visser (2009) A framework for empathy in design: stepping into and out of the user's life, Journal of Engineering Design, 20:5, 437-448.

[31]

Lindtner, S., G. D. Hertz and P. Dourish. 2014. Emerging sites of HCI innovation: hackerspaces, hardware startups & incubators. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, New York, 439-448.

[32]

Lindtner, S., Bardzell, S., & Bardzell, J. (2016, May). Reconstituting the utopian vision of making: HCI after technosolutionism. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1390-1402). ACM.

Digital Library

[33]

Gulliksen, J., Göransson, B., Boivie, I., Blomkvist, S., Persson, J., & Cajander, Å. (2003). Key principles for user-centred systems design. Behaviour and Information Technology, 22(6), 397-409.

[34]

Ohlmeier, B. (2013). Civic education for sustainable development. Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education, 4(1), 5ñ22. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2478/dcse-2013-0001

[35]

Peppler, K., & Bender, S. (2013). Maker movement spreads innovation one project at a time. Phi Delta Kappan, 95(3), 22-27.

[36]

Pucci, E.L., Mulder, I. (2015). “Star(t) to Shine: Unlocking Hidden Talents Through Sharing and Making.” Distributed, Ambient, and Pervasive Interactions, 85-96.

Digital Library

[37]

Riekhoff, J., & Markopoulos, P. (2008, June). Sampling young children's experiences with cultural probes. In Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Interaction design and children (pp. 145-148).

Digital Library

[38]

Sawhney, N., Graver, C., & Breitkopf, E. (2018, June). Audio journaling for self-reflection and assessment among teens in participatory media programs. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children (pp. 93-105).

Digital Library

[39]

Scaife, M., Rogers, Y., Aldrich, F., & Davies, M. (1997, March). Designing for or designing with? Informant design for interactive learning environments. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human factors in computing systems (pp. 343-350).

Digital Library

[40]

Schuler, D., & Namioka, A. (Eds.). (1993). Participatory design: Principles and practices. CRC Press.

Digital Library

[41]

Sheridan, K., Halverson, E. R., Litts, B., Brahms, L., Jacobs-Priebe, L., & Owens, T. (2014). Learning in the making: A comparative case study of three makerspaces. Harvard Educational Review, 84(4), 505-531.

[42]

Smith, R. C., Iversen, O. S., & Hjorth, M. (2015). Design thinking for digital fabrication in education. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 5, 20-28.

Digital Library

[43]

Robertson, T., & Simonsen, J. (2012). Participatory Design: An introduction. In Routledge International Handbook of Participatory Design (pp. 1-18). Routledge.

[44]

Stangl, A., Kim, J., & Yeh, T. (2014, June). 3D printed tactile picture books for children with visual impairments: a design probe. In Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Interaction design and children (pp. 321-324).

Digital Library

[45]

Tanenbaum, J. G.,. Amanda M. Williams, Audrey Desjardins, Karen Tanenbaum. 2013. Democratizing technology: pleasure, utility and expressiveness in DIY and maker practice. In Proc. of ACM CHI’13, pp. 2603-2612

Digital Library

[46]

Telhan, O., Kafai, Y. B., Davis, R. L., Steele, K., & Adleberg, B. M. (2014, June). Connected messages: a maker approach to interactive community murals with youth. In Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Interaction design and children (pp. 193-196).

Digital Library

[47]

Toombs, A., S. Bardzell and J. Bardzell. 2014. Becoming makers: Hackerspace member habits, values, and identities. Journal of Peer Production, 5, 1-8.

[48]

Tuhkala, A., Wagner, M. L., Iversen, O. S., & Kärkkäinen, T. (2019). Technology Comprehension—Combining computing, design, and societal reflection as a national subject. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 20, 54-63.

Digital Library

[49]

Unterfrauner, E., Christian Voigt, and Sandra Schön. 2018. Towards a model of early entrepreneurial education: appreciation, facilitation and evaluation. In Methodologies and Intelligent Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning, 8th International Conference, 139–146.

[50]

van Doorn, F., Stappers, P. J., & Gielen, M. (2013, April). Design research by proxy: using children as researchers to gain contextual knowledge about user experience. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2883-2892).

Digital Library

[51]

Van Holm, E. J. (2015). Makerspaces and contributions to entrepreneurship. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 195, 24-31.

[52]

Van Mechelen, M., Schut, A., Gielen, M., & Klapwijk, R. (2018, June). Developing children's empathy in co-design activities: a pilot case study. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children (pp. 669-674).

Digital Library

[53]

Van Mechelen, M., Schut, A., Gielen, M., & Södergren, A. C. (2019, June). Children's Assessment of Co-design Skills: Creativity, Empathy and Collaboration. In Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (pp. 520-526).

Digital Library

[54]

Von Hippel, E. (2005). Democratizing innovation: The evolving phenomenon of user innovation. Journal für Betriebswirtschaft, 55(1), 63-78.

[55]

Weibert, A., Aal, K., von Rekowski, T., & Wulf, V. (2015). " Hey, can we make that, please?": On Craft as a Means of Cross-cultural Community-Building. The Journal of Community Informatics, 11(2), 1-9.

[56]

Ventä-Olkkonen L., Hartikainen H., Norouzi B., Iivari N., Kinnula M. (2019) A Literature Review of the Practice of Educating Children About Technology Making. In: Lamas D., Loizides F., Nacke L., Petrie H., Winckler M., Zaphiris P. (eds) Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2019. INTERACT 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 11746. Springer, Cham

Digital Library

[57]

Von Hippel, E. (1986). Lead users: a source of novel product concepts. Management science, 32 (7), 791-805.

[58]

Klein, H., & Myers, M. (1999). A Set of Principles for Conducting and Evaluating Interpretive Field Studies in Information Systems. MIS Quarterly, 23 (1), 67-93.

[59]

Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y. (2000) The Discipline and Practice of Qualitative Research. In: Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S., Eds., Handbook of Qualitative Research, Sage, Thousand Oaks, 1-32.

Cited By

Hartikainen HVentä-Olkkonen LCortés Orduña MSanchez Milara IKäsmä MKuure L(2024)Making The Future School: An Analysis of Teens' Collaborative Digital Fabrication ProjectProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373688:CSCW1(1-37)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637368
Ahmadpour NPillai AYao SWeatherall A(2024)Building enriching realities with childrenInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2023.103193183:COnline publication date: 14-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2023.103193
Hartikainen HVentä-Olkkonen LKinnula MIivari N(2023)“We were proud of our idea”International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.10055235:COnline publication date: 1-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.100552
Show More Cited By

Embedded assumptions in design and Making projects with children
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Interaction design
    1. Interaction design process and methods

Recommendations

Empowering children through design and making: towards protagonist role adoption
PDC '18: Proceedings of the 15th Participatory Design Conference: Full Papers - Volume 1

Inviting children to adopt a Protagonist role regarding technology has recently become advocated. Such a role embraces the original political participatory design (PD) agenda and aims at empowerment of children through design and making. However, so far ...
Patterns and Themes in Designing with Children

A host of design approaches have been developed to support involving children in the design of new technologies. Unique approaches tend to be developed to involve new “audiences” of children – of different ages, with different abilities, at different ...
Development and application of a framework for comparing early design methods for young children

When designing with young children, designers usually select user centred design methods based on the children's required level of engagement and the inspiration expected to be created according to the designer. User centred design methods should be ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Other conferences

OzCHI '20: Proceedings of the 32nd Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

December 2020

764 pages

ISBN:9781450389754

DOI:10.1145/3441000

Copyright © 2020 Owner/Author.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 15 February 2021

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article
Research
Refereed limited

Conference

OzCHI '20

OzCHI '20: 32nd Australian Conference on Human-Computer-Interaction

December 2 - 4, 2020

NSW, Sydney, Australia

Acceptance Rates

Overall Acceptance Rate 362 of 729 submissions, 50%

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

4
Total Citations
View Citations
516
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)162
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)18

Reflects downloads up to 19 Sep 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Hartikainen HVentä-Olkkonen LCortés Orduña MSanchez Milara IKäsmä MKuure L(2024)Making The Future School: An Analysis of Teens' Collaborative Digital Fabrication ProjectProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36373688:CSCW1(1-37)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637368
Ahmadpour NPillai AYao SWeatherall A(2024)Building enriching realities with childrenInternational Journal of Human-Computer Studies10.1016/j.ijhcs.2023.103193183:COnline publication date: 14-Mar-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2023.103193
Hartikainen HVentä-Olkkonen LKinnula MIivari N(2023)“We were proud of our idea”International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.10055235:COnline publication date: 1-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.ijcci.2022.100552
Kinnula MDurall EHaukipuro L(2022)Imagining Better Futures for Everybody – Sustainable Entrepreneurship Education for Future Design Protagonists6th FabLearn Europe / MakeEd Conference 202210.1145/3535227.3535229(1-8)Online publication date: 30-May-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3535227.3535229

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

HTML Format

View this article in HTML Format.

Get Access

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents