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Welcome to the wiki for Monstero by Team HOBL. We will guide you through the concept on how we came out with the idea.
The development of low self-esteem in young children has become an emerging trend in current society. It is an issue that, left unaddressed, has negative consequences for the children in both their early and adult years. As a result, the purpose of this project is to design and develop a prototype of a solution to address this issue. To do this, it is planned to create a gamified wearable device to encourage and inspire children to improve their self-esteem through exercise and socialising. By the end of the semester, we hope to have advanced our understanding in this domain whilst improving our capabilities in technologies such as Ionic and Java. We also hope to have further developed our ability to collaborate and work within a design/development team.
The domain in which we will work in is behavioural change, with our problem space being the incidence of low self-esteem in children. According to research, self-esteem issues tend to peak in children from middle childhood through to early adolescence (Chaplin & John 2007). For this reason, we chose to target our solution at six to ten-year-olds. Due to this young target audience, it makes sense to gamify the solution as about "87% of [Australian] kids aged six to ten play video games". In regards to intervention mechanics, research suggests that "exercise can improve [self-esteem]" (Ekeland, 2005). There are several reasons as to why this is the case such as; biochemical processes involving exercise, better perception of body image and a sense of accomplishment (Sani, 2016). Furthermore, in relation to self-esteem, "Combining exercise, nature and social components in future initiatives may play a key role in managing and supporting recovery"(Barton, Griffin & Pretty, 2011). The team also investigated the wearable devices as a solution, this is partly due to the general proficiency of children when given technology "kids today are more comfortable with technology than their parents" (Acton, 2017). Moreover, one article claims that wearables can "improve health outcomes for children" (Acton, 2017). Furthermore, the use of inanimate companions (such as teddy bears) was also investigated. Andrews states that "[inanimate] companions have a positive developmental impact on children and can help reduce anxiety as well as strengthen their ability to express themselves" (Andrews, 2004). Finally, the team researched goal-setting and reward systems to see how they affect children. According to Locke, goal setting is essentially linked to task performance. It states that specific and challenging goals along with appropriate feedback contribute to higher and better task performance (Locke, 1960). The concept of ‘appropriate feedback’ that Locke describes is also vital in motivation. According to Morin “reward systems can be one of the best ways to change a child's behaviour… reward systems usually work fast [and] also work for children of all ages” (Morin, 2018).
As a result of analysing these insights, the team has chosen a social exercise application as a solution. This will allow all of the mentioned aspects to be implemented succinctly into a gamified wearable experience.
Through our research, we have found out that exercise is a huge factor in improving self-esteem among children as can be seen by Ekeland, “The results, based on 25 comparisons with participants aged 3–20 years, indicate that exercise can improve self-esteem” (Ekeland, 2005). Hence, the design opportunity that we had derived from our research is to create a wearable to motivate children to exercise more and thus improve their self-esteem. The solution is inspired by the Japanese wearable-game Tamagotchi. In a similar vein, this game would also be centred around a digital creature which can be seen as a pet. The game would be played on a wearable controller similar to Tamagotchi. As the child jogs, the creature will level up and may have several evolutions which serve as milestones. The exercise rate of the children would be tracked by the heart rate sensor incorporated in our wearable.
This game would have a big focus on social features such that the child can make friend with another child who also owns the device by simply shaking their hands or a high-five. It has stated that having friends is correlated with a sense of well being across the lifespan (Hartup, 1997), hence the social perspective of the wearable will greatly help the children in improving their self-esteem too. Also, if a child registers with their parent, there would be extra in-game rewards available. This could help in increasing the children’s interest in the wearable because according to Morin “reward systems can be one of the best ways to change a child's behaviour… reward systems usually work fast [and] also work for children of all ages” (Morin, 2018).
The existing solution such as the Pokemon Go, or other exercising mobile application is all based on a smartphone device, however, bringing a smartphone around while exercising especially for children at that age is actually very unrealistic and tedious process, hence we had decided to have a light wearable rather than just making a mobile application. Although there are others fitness band available in the market, it is actually inclined towards adults, as children are often not attracted by the statistical data that they provide, a creature like implementation that we aim to achieve will be a better approach in motivating them to exercise. e they exercise.
● Initial Requirements & Design (Week 8)
The first phase will consist of gathering initial user requirements through user testing and more focused research as well as designing screen mockups for the wearable. The user testing will consist of interviews with children within the target age and parents of these children. The participants will answer focused questions relating specifically to the proposed solution. This will be invaluable in making conceptual adjustments to the solution before actual production commences. Further research will also be conducted online into aspects of the domain and problem space which are more focused on our solution. This will be particularly important if our concept changes due to feedback from the aforementioned user-testing. Following this new information, we will start prototyping the screen layouts and interactions between them.
● Prototype & Evaluation (Week 10)
This phase will include creating the screen mock ups in Ionic and coding the core functionality of the wearable. This includes having the monster grow during exercise, working stats for the monster as well as a complete interface. The design and layout for the prototypes will be based off domain research regarding child-friendly design. Results from the user-testing may also influence this. The completion of this initial design should be finished by the stand up in week nine. Towards the end of this phase, we will conduct horizontal testing across the interface with the target audience again to discover any flaws in the design.
● Iteration & Evaluation (Week 11 & 12)
This phase will involve adding the social features to the game as well as iterating on the interface from the feedback we receive in our first testing session. The social features we want complete in this time frame include, adding friends and battling with other people with the wearable. The domain research relating to social aspects regarding children will be consulted heavily in this section. We aim to have these social features complete for the stand up in week 11. We also want to conduct a new testing session at the end of this phase to test out these new social features and see how the target audience would interact with each other.
● Final Prototype (Week 13)
During this final week, we will ideally just be fixing bugs within the wearable as well as fixing any problems discovered during the previous user testing. We will also be constructing any materials required for the showcase at the end of the semester.
Our group includes 4 members, and each of everyone of us come from fairly different courses or majors. Therefore we have different kinds of skill sets and weakness.
- Alan's main strengths are; research gathering and testing, documentation and UX design. he is less proficient at programming and more so at designing. Although he will mostly work on tasks which align with his strengths, he also aims to utilise this project to further his programming and designing capabilities by working on implementation-based tasks.
- Tee Han has key strengths on graphics designing as well as front-end development but he has limited knowledge of back-end development as well as researching existing papers and gather insights from the paper, hence he wish to further improve on his weakness in this project as well as utilising his strengths at its finest in the area that he could excel.
- Jason has existing strengths in web-based technologies and UI/UX design but recognises that he has limited abilities in Object-oriented programming languages such as Java as well as mobile app development. As a result, his key goal for this project is to develop capabilities in mobile app development. He also hopes to further consolidate and develop his abilities to work effectively in development team.
- Harrison's main strength is that he is knowledgeable in both designing and programming so he can help pick up any slack in the team whenever it is needed. His main weakness would be that he tends to leave things to the last minute so he will have to make a conscious effort to keep up with the workload of the other group members. Harrison hopes to gain more experience in front end development and work on developing good prototyping skills, particularly within surveys and interviews.
Team
- The team is highly skilled in a wide variety of coding languages that we can leverage to develop the prototype. Having this wide pool of skills also provides flexibility in the development stage, allowing us to pivot and change technologies whenever necessary. Relevant technologies that the team has experience with include: Java, Ionic 3, HTML/CSS, Javascript
- The team has also exhibited a strong work ethic to date, having also developed a strong working and personal relationships. As a result, our team has excellent cohesion and efficiency, and are well equipped to deal with any obstacles.
- Team HOBL’s members come from a wide variety of backgrounds, with a mix of international and domestic students. As a result, we are able to tackle issues from many different perspectives and have different ideas to bring to the table.
- In terms of knowledge, the team has a strong background in HCI and UI/UX design, with every member having experience in this area. This is highly useful in this project, as we look to take a user-centric approach to the device’s
Concept
- A key strength of the concept is that we are leveraging ideas with strong academic backing in our design. Particularly, the concept of exercise is proven to improve children’s self-esteem mean that should we be successful in motivating children to use our device, there will likely be strong positive outcomes.
- Having chosen to explore a physical computing solution, this means we will have expert guidance through the course’s tutors as they all have strong backgrounds in this realm.
- For the development of the prototype, we have chosen to build a mobile app in Ionic. This framework is open-source and accessible on our personal computers, meaning that it has no cost and low hardware requirements, as well as having extensive online resources to assist development.
Team
- A key challenge for our team is the balance of workload with other courses. With a majority of us in the final stages of our degrees, it is expected that at times we may be faced with excessive workloads. This may hinder our ability to work cohesively and requires careful planning to manage.
- Ensuring that the team stays productive and maintains
Concept
- Given the inherent nature of designing for children, gaining access to work with children or associated people like teachers or parents may be difficult.
- Choosing to create an app as a prototype to emulate a wearable may have limitations relating to the size and shape, particularly because it should fit on children’s arms.
- Opportunity to make a difference in the domain and potentially having real positive change. This is also a risk, as introducing this technology may have unforeseen consequences as children may be hard to understand
- Opportunity for group members to develop new skills in areas they are not familiar with. This is also a risk, as developing outside our skill set could be detrimental to the development of the project
- The team has the opportunity to put a high amount of work into this project, but this comes with the risk of overloading members with too much work.
- A school or after-school care program could see this project and look to adopt it for their students in order to address low-self esteem
- At the showcase, students and other guests may have a positive reaction to it, potentially empathising with it due to their own or children’s experiences
- External parties may see the project as more suited for addressing the exercise issue rather than self-esteem
- For the project to be considered effective, the final prototype should be evaluated with users to analyse its ability to encourage exercise and facilitate social interactions
- For the project to be successful, the prototype should be subtle enough that the intended users aren’t aware of its purpose - rather they should just view it as a new watch or toy
- If successful in finishing the project, the effectiveness of the intended design will be decided by how well children adapt and utilize the device.
Andrews, T. (2004). THE USE OF TEDDY BEARS TO HELP DEVELOP INTERPERSONAL CONTEXT TO PROMOTE INTRINSIC MOTIVATION. Retrieved from http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/447/44740212.pdf
Anton, A. (2017). The Future of Kid's Wearables: More Than Just Tracking Devices. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/annabelacton/2017/05/23/the-future-of-kids-wearables-more-than-just-tracking-devices/#236ae300298a
Barton, J., Griffin, M., & Pretty, J. (2011). Exercise-, nature- and socially interactive-based initiatives improve mood and self-esteem in the clinical population. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1757913910393862
Hartup, W. W., & Stevens, N. (1997). Friendships and adaptation in the life course. Retrieved from Psychological Bulletin, 121(3), 355-370. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.121.3.355
Morin, A. (2018). How to Create a Reward System for Kids That Works. Retrieved from https://www.verywellfamily.com/how-to-create-a-reward-system-for-kids-that-works-10
Sani, S. (2016). Physical activity and self-esteem: testing direct and indirect relationships associated with psychological and physical mechanisms. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5068479/
Should kids be playing video games? A look at the latest research. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/should-kids-be-playing-video-games-a-look-at-the-latest-research/story-fnivsv6o-1227128377427?sv=3e75a3f89e667e434c733e90792d524f