Home

Research

Publications

Education

Student Projects

Tilde Bekker – Research Topics

---

Playful Interactions for Children – Playful Persuasion for Older Adults–

Sports motivation , field labs and business models (Pro-fit) -

Early Design methods with children - Evaluating technologies for children

---

Playful Interactions for Children

The aim of project is to design innovative toys and games that stimulate physical and social play, using as an inspiration source both ideas from game design and opportunities of new technologies, such as sensors and actuators. We follow a user-centred design research approach which combines knowledge about child development, game design and persuasion.

· The Intelligent Play Environments project (I-PE) is a project funded by FES (Ministry of Economic Affairs) which aims to create playful solutions that stimulate primary school students to be more physically active. The main goal of the project is to explore whether and how children can be activated to social and physical play by embedding gaming concepts into physical concepts. The project will run from 2011-2015. It is collaboration between the TU/E and the TU Delft, Department of Industrial design. Partners in the project are Kompan, Almende, Sportcomplex Eindhoven Noord (SEN), PatchingZone, DesignGoed and the Stichting Sports and Technology.

· The Play-Fit project is a project done in collaboration with the Fontys University of Applied Sciences funded through a Raak-pro grant (2010-2014). It aims to create playful solutions that stimulate secondary school students to be more physically active. The main goal of the project is to explore whether and how teenagers can be activated by translating aspects of gaming into physical concepts. Others partners are Ranj (serious game design), E-fit zone, IT-wrks and NISB.

· The project on ‘Intelligent Playgrounds’ (2008) is funded by the Creative Conversion Factory, and aims to iteratively design a concept that will be used for design research. The research focuses on how to motivate children to physical and social play. Two designers, Bas Groenendaal en Rik Wesselink, are designing intelligent concepts through an iterative process with frequent input from children and other stakeholders. The project has resulted in working prototypes, which have been handed over to business partners.

The projects are also done through Industrial Design student projects.

The LEDball concept provides visual feedback when shaken by a child which can be used for various open-ended games

Selected publications:

· Sturm, J., Tieben, R., Deen, M., Bekker, T. & Schouten, B. (2011) “PlayFit: Designing playful activity interventions for teenagers“, DIGRA 2011, 15-17 September 2011, Hilversum, The Netherlands.

· Tiemstra, G., Berg, R. van den, Bekker, T., Graaf, M. de (2011) Guidelines to Design Interactive Open-ended Play Installations for Children Placed in a Free Play Environment, Conference DIGRA 2011, 15-17 September 2011, Hilversum, The Netherlands.

· Tieben,R., Bekker, T. and Schouten, B. (2011) Curiosity and Interaction: making people curious through interactive systems, BCS-HCI conference, 4 – 8 July 2011, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

· Bekker, T., Sturm, J. and Barakova, E. (2010) Designing for social interaction through physical play. , Special Issue Editorial, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. 14(5), 281- 283.

· Bekker, M.M., Hopma, E. and Sturm, J., (2010) The influence of output modalities on children’s play behaviour, Journal of Arts and Technology, 3(4), 325-340.

Playful Persuasion for Older Adults

The aim of the project is to examine how intelligent concepts can motivate older adults to do activities that contribute to a healthy lifestyle. We assume that people can be seduced to certain activities if the design incorporates playful features, such as appealing to curiosity and providing challenges.

· Collaboration with the TU delft in the project G-Motiv is a is a project funded by FES (Ministry of Economic Affairs). Our main research question is how to design product service systems effecting a desired social behavioral change. The scientific research activities address the effect of (1) game-elements on game-motivation, (2) tangible interaction on user-motivation, and (3) game-based motivation on behavioral change.

· The project on ‘Independent Living’ (2009-2010) is funded by the Creative Conversion Factory, and aims to iteratively design a concept that will be used for design research. We are creating concepts that support social and physical activity of older adults. The partners in the Independent Living project are: Philips Research, TU Eindhoven, Orbis, Devlab and NH Hotels. We have designed a concept called The Activator, that provides feedback about physical activity and social proximity to older adults living in a care home. Furthermore, it provides information about upcoming activities in the home. We have conducted a field study to examine it’s use in a care home context.

· We are also conducting design cases to examine how to design tangible social network solutions for older adults. The intention is to create solutions that support older adults to stay connected to family and friends. The projects are done through Industrial Design student projects.

The Activator concept, which provides information about upcoming activities.

Publications:

· Romero, N.A., Sturm, J., Bekker, M.M., Valk, L. de and Kruitwagen, S, (2010) Playful Persuasion to support older adults’ social and physical activities, Special Issue on Inclusive Design, Interacting with Computers, 22(6): 485-495.

· Bekker, M.M., Romero, N.A., Sturm, J., de Valk, L. and Kruitwagen. S. (2010) Persuading Older Adults’ to social and physical activities. ISG 2010, International Society for Gerontechnology 7th World Conference, Vancouver (Canada), May 27 – 30.

· de Valk, L., Kruitwagen, S., Bekker, M.M., Romero, N.A. and Sturm, J. (2010) Activator: Playful Persuasion to support older adults’ social and physical activities. ISG 2010, International Society for Gerontechnology 7th World Conference, Vancouver (Canada), May 27 – 30.

Sports Motivation, Field-labs and Business Models (Pro-fit)

The ProFit project combines technology, sports and health through the development of sport field-labs. These are locations where companies can install new sports and play products and have them tested by the citizens as prime users. ProFit is funded by the European Union, under the Interreg IVB North West Europe programme. ProFit aims to stimulate innovation and new business creation in the sport sector by developing an EU network of field-labs focused on sport. The field-labs will be located in urban communities where citizens can engage in innovative sports activities. A product innovation competition is also incorporated into the project to inspire and source exciting new products to test in the field-labs. Field-labs will be developed in four European cities: Eindhoven, Delft (Nl), Kortrijk (Be) and Sheffield (UK).

A supportive research programme provides scientific rigour to the development and operation of the field-labs and products. The programme will cover: 1) assessment of user needs through a 'context mapping' approach, which will establish the foundation for each field-lab; 2) development of the data collection methods and systems to measure user-product interaction; 3) assessment of economic impact; and 4) development of a model for future field-lab development.

Participating universities are Sheffield Hallam University, University of Ulster, Eindhoven University of Technology, Delft University of Technology and Howest (University College West Flanders).

Initial design case studies have examined how to design play solutions for children and how to involve stakeholders in social innovation sessions.

Early Design methods for involving children in design

Wouter Sluis-Thiescheffer is doing a PhD project on comparing early design methods for 8 to 12 year old children. Wouter is developing a tool for predicting how suitable early design methods are for children based on the skills that are required to participate in design sessions.

Selected publications:

· Sluis-Thiescheffer, W., Bekker, M. Eggen, B. Vermeeren, A. and de Ridder, H. (2011) Development and Application of a Framework for Comparing Early-Design Methods for Young Children, Interacting with Computers, 23(1), 70-84.

· Thang, B. , R.J.W. Sluis-Thiescheffer, M.M. Bekker, and J.H. Eggen (2008) Comparing the Creativity of Children’s Design Solutions Based on Expert Assessment, Proceedings of Interaction Design and children, June 11 - 13, Chicago (USA), 266-273.

· R.J.W. Sluis-Thiescheffer, M.M. Bekker, J.H. Eggen (2007) Comparing Early Design Methods for Children, Proceedings of Interaction Design and children, June 6-8, Aalborg, Denmark, 17-24.

Evaluating technologies for children

Many evaluation methods exist to evaluate products for adults. We examine whether these methods can also be used to evaluate products designed for children. Furthermore, we develop new evaluation methods that are especially suitable to involve children in evaluation sessions. Finally we also develop expert evaluation methods to support experts to predict problems in children’s technology.

Wolmet Barendregt did a PhD project that examined observational methods to determine usability and fun problems in children’s computer games. Another research project by Ester Baauw developed a predictive evaluation method SEEM to predict usability and fun problems in children’s computer games.

Wolmet Barendregt evaluating a computer game using the Picture Card Method (Foto/Bart van Overbeeke)

Selected Publications:

· Bekker, M.M., Baauw, E. and Barendregt, W. (2007) A Comparison of two Analytical Evaluation Methods for educational Computer Games for young Children, special issue of Cognition Technology and Work.

· Barendregt, W., Bekker, M. M., (2007) Development and Evaluation of the Picture Cards Method, special issue of Cognition Technology and Work.

· Barendregt, W., Bekker, M.M., Bouwhuis, D.G. and Baauw, E. (2006) Identifying usability and fun problems in a computer game during first use and after some practice, Int. J. of Human-Computer Studies (64), 830 -846.