Our little orchestra: the development of an interactive toy

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the process and the results of a project to develop an interactive educating toy for children. The purpose was to work together with the users and to take advantage of the different disciplines represented in each project group. We were interested in questions such as: How do children play and interact? How do children co-operate and what do they want to play with? To encourage children to cooperate was one of our thoughts, another was to let them help us in the process of developing the toy. Through observations and interviews with the children and studies of scientific literature and studies of what kind of instruments, mixers and music-toys already was out on the market we decided to develop “something-that-makes-music”, and the result was a sound-mixer, Our Little Orchestra, looking like a birthday cake.

REFERENCES

• 1: Bjorkvold, J-R. (1988) Den musiska manniskan.
• 2: Browall, C. (1998) Larare-Dator-Elev
• 3: Gardner, H. (1985) Frames of Mind: A Theory of Multiple Intelligence. London.
• 4: Sundin, B. (1995) Barns musikaliska utveckling. Liber

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.1 Multimedia Information Systems
          Subjects: Artificial, augmented, and virtual realities
      H.5.2 User Interfaces (D.2.2, H.1.2, I.3.6)
          Subjects: Interaction styles (e.g., commands, menus, forms, direct manipulation)

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.7 Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism
          Subjects: Virtual reality

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Management, Performance, Theory

Keywords:
interactive, music, toy, user oriented