Broadening children's involvement as design partners

Abstract

Many existing studies discuss the participation of children as design partners in the development of technology. In this paper, we shift the focus from technology to experience, and propose to broaden the role of children to become experience designer partners. We exemplify our approach by discussing a case study in the educational domain. We conducted a contextual inquiry study in a local primary school for over three months, working with twenty four children aged 10--11 who used an online tool for cooperative hyperstorytelling. Our research shows that children of this age can participate in experience design not only as informants but also as co-designers. This intergenerational partnership brings a number of educational benefits to children involved in this process. It also suggests innovative solutions in the way technology can be exploited in an educational setting.