Design Principles of Interactive Play Systems for Children's Outdoor Playing: A Designers’ Perspective

Abstract

In recent years, a number of interactive play systems have been developed around the world by designers to stimulate children’s outdoor playing. This paper provides a framework of the design principles used by designers to develop these systems. In addition, the mechanism by which these systems stimulate children’s outdoor playing is discussed from the perspective of designers. An in-depth interview approach is used to explore the designers’ perspectives. The COM-B behaviour change model is adopted to elaborate the design principles and the mechanism of actions of interactive play systems. The COM-B model that provides a basis for designing healthy behaviour change interventions, defines behaviour as the result of an interaction between three components: capability, opportunity, and motivation. These components are achieved by a series of intervention functions. The contribution of this paper is to identify the design principles and functions which are used by the designers of interactive play systems. Furthermore, this paper contributes from an academic perspective to an extension of the COM-B model including the new layer of design principles. The findings of this research contribute to the theory of behaviour change and are beneficial for practitioners and in particular interactive designers who develop systems that promote children’s outdoor playing.

Keywords: outdoor playing behaviour, children, COM-B model, behaviour change, interactive system, designer