Author: Andrew

Kids and Robots

/ Andrew / 2 Comments

I am still amazed by the ease with which kids (namely my six year old son) can pick up technologies and figure out UI interactions. Over the past few months, Ruslan has been watching me design robots on My Robot Nation, a web-based service that allows you to configure, design and 3D print your robot. He asked if he could create his own robot for his birthday and so I sat him down in front of the computer. In the time I went to the kitchen to make him something to eat, he had already configured and designed his first robot. Like all things digital, the robot’s existence was ephemeral: Ruslan deleted his creation, wanting to create something better the next time.

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This led to his prototyping and designing on paper several different robots before he sat down again in front of the computer.  The movement between digital and traditional analog tools as means of expression and creation comes naturally to kids. Their movement is seamless and effortless; we’ve lost this skill as adults.

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This prototyping process repeated itself several times before Ruslan finally prototyped and created M.A.X.

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Not to be outdone, his younger sibling also prototyped a robot with his help.

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Mega Man

/ Andrew

My 4yr daughter’s interpretation of MEGAman, “The Blue Guy needs to use the phone to call his blue friends.”

My 6yr old son’s interpretation of MEGAman, “I’m the blue guy and I need to get back to the blue guy future.”

 

Research Prologue

/ Andrew

I’ve been doing some ad-hoc research on gesture/touch based technologies and children. Exploring what is a child’s learning curve for touch based device, their technology expectations and biases, what is the driving factor for playing with specific technologies and what does this means for GUI design, User Experience, programming, development and deployment.

I’ve discussed some of the general findings with various people at the Breaking Development conference with a lot of interest from designers and developers from Intel, Microsoft and a tech guru. The next step is to start compiling and putting some qualitative structure into my finds and sending out via this blog. Posting my findings and thoughts out there is intimidating, but a necessary part in my professional career development and personal growth.

Exciting times.