Thompson, Sheral, Lochrie, Mark ORCID: 0000-0002-7909-8455, Read, Janet C
ORCID: 0000-0002-7138-1643 and Fitton, Dan
(2024)
Towards a Framework for Designing Connected Toys.
In: 37th International BCS Human-Computer Interaction Conference (BCS HCI 24), 15-17 July 2024, University of Central Lancashire, Preston.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.14236/ewic%2Fbcshci2024.17
Abstract
Smart and Internet-connected toys (IoToys) offer new and exciting possibilities to enhance play experiences analogous to Mark Weiser’s visions of ubiquitous and calm technology. Within this work, we sought to create a set of principles for evaluating and designing calm internet-connected toys and trial them through the evaluation of a set of popular (‘off the shelf’) IoToys. This work is the first of its kind to apply calm principles to IoToys and use them to evaluate current off-the-shelf connected toys. This work highlights the challenges
inherent in adults evaluating toys designed for children. We contribute an approach to understanding calm in the context of IoToys through our principles and a method for evaluating calm within IoToys. We found while that our IoT calm principles have some limitations our work provides key insights into how we might understand calm in IoToys. We hope this work will help inform practitioners and academics interested in designing future IoToys.
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