Designing for spatial competence

ABSTRACT

Child-computer interaction designers are increasingly concerned with developing technologies that support and encourage physical activity in children in everyday indoor and outdoor settings. This trend mirrors commercial developments towards so-called exertion interfaces like the Nintendo®Wii™ that require full-body engagement. Physical health benefits aside, these types of interfaces present an important and underexplored design opportunity because they also engage children's spatial cognitive abilities. Can we harness this potential and design interfaces that support the development of spatial competence in children? To explore this question, the paper describes some of the cognitive and neural underpinnings of spatial competence as they relate to interaction design for children. With this background, I explore five interaction design examples: taking multiple perspectives on the environment, zooming in and out, estimating distances, experiencing motion, and encountering rich visual cues. These examples provide a starting point for new directions in designing exertion interfaces and ubiquitous computing interfaces for children that support different aspects of spatial cognitive development.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.m Miscellaneous

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Theory

Keywords:
design theory, exertion interfaces, physical play, spatial cognitive development