Designing Play: young children’s play and communication practices in relation to designers’ intentions for their toy
Dr Dylan Yamada-Rice, Dubit
Thursday October 27th 2016
12 noon-2pm
55 George Square, Room G1, The University of Edinburgh
sign up here: open to all (please bring lunch)
This presentation will report on a project that considered the design and use of a new form of toy, specifically a digitally connected wooden doll known as Avakai. This is considered from two perspectives, first in the designer’s intentions and secondly how young children in their combined play and multimodal communication used it. The data were gathered through conversations with the toy designers, as well as observations of the children’s use using GoPro video cameras mounted on chest-harnesses and field notes. All data were transcribed and then analysed using thematic analysis.
The presentation will outline three key findings; (1) children’s customisation of the toy design, (2) design aesthetics, simplicity and emotion, and (3) the use of the compartment in the base of the toy. Each finding is described both in relation to children’s use in terms of play and multimodal communication practices, as well as the designers’ backgrounds and intentions for the toy. The idea of giving agency to the design of the toy as well as how it was used builds on work across a wide range of diciplines and theories, including object-orientedness (Kaptelinin et al, 1999), object-ethnographies (Carrington, 2012), artefactual literacies (Pahl & Rowsell, 2010) and material stuff (Miller 2008; 2009; Shove et al, 2007). The commonality across all such theories is in the importance attached to devaluing the notion that communication practices are more important than material matter (Barad 2003).
About the speaker: Dr. Dylan Yamada-Rice is a Senior Research Manager for Dubit. Dubit is a company that focuses on research, strategy and digital for children’s entertainment brands. Previously she worked as a lecturer in Early Years Education at the University of Sheffield. Her research interests are concerned with early childhood literacy, multimodal communication practices and visual and multimodal research methods. Many of her studies have been at the intersection of academic and industry knowhow. Such as an ESRC-funded study Exploring Play and Creativity in Pre-schoolers' Use of Tablet Apps, an AHRC-funded project looking at the design of videogames for hospitalised children and a HEIF-funded project that focused on the development of a blueprint for the co-production of children in digital game design.