Jihoon.Folio
Jihoon.Folio
LED's Play: Smart Playgrounds
Designed with Asel Wimalaweera,
Danique Stappers and Sarah Scholte
"Positively enhancing the sport atmosphere through open-ended play to create attractive, dynamic, and encouraging ambiance at Krajicek Playgrounds."
Background
In the past years, the amount of children that played outside has decreased significantly. In the past, during our parents and grandparent's generation, around 70 percent of children played outside. Currently, only 10 percent of today's children aged between six and twelve plays are more active in outdoor than indoors. Research shows 40 percent of the interviewed children find outdoor playing areas boring. As playing outside is both beneficial to the child's health and their growth development.
It is crucial for the growing children to stay active and healthy, however not everyone has the financial means to have a membership at a sports club or federation. The Krajicek Foundation works for these type of neighbourhoods where they build playgrounds which are accessible for everyone. In these facilitated areas, the children can come together in order to socialise and to play various outdoor activities. Intending to give a rise to the decreasing numbers of playing outside, they strive to improve current playgrounds to be more interesting and original.
Opportunity
Gap in the Field
Among the younger generation playing outdoors has been perceived as less attractive in comparison to the rise of mobile technology and digital games. This gives motivation for designers to improve current playgrounds into a more interactive and interesting platforms that allows the children to gain healthier lifestyles. The Krajicek Foundation realises this change and utilise sports as a tool to achieve social development for the children in poorer neighbourhoods.
This project is carried out within the theme smart playgrounds; defined as keeping the trusted atmosphere of the playground with additional interactive factors. Besides a sporting field it should also function as a meeting platform to further create social cohesion in this environment.
Proposal
The aim of this project is to positively enhance the current sporting atmosphere at the Krajicek Playgrounds. By the use of open-ended play, there is strived towards creating an attracting, dynamic, and encouraging ambiance. With the means that the facilitation of our product should enable.the children to create their own games, while allowing them to create an encouraging sporting environment in a non-invasive way. With the purpose of increasing the motivation to come to the playground where sporting skills and personal development are strengthened.
User
The largest age category of the playground is defined between the age of eight and twelve. Based on this, the age category was used to identify the ideal range for the target group.
Taking a closer look on this group, children have an active mind and imagination. Research states that one of their most favourite activity is making up their own games. Providing the children with freedom will help to create a great and positive experience at the playground.
Within Krajicek playgrounds, there are also Scholarshippers, who are sport leaders that volunteer to organise and supervise the children during outdoor games. They carry an important role as they inspire and lead the children not only who are participating on the playground, but to help other children outside waiting for their turn or unable to participate be engaged.
Design Environment
The Krajicek playground itself are quite basic, in terms of facilitation they offer football and basketball as their main uses. Despite of the simple setting, one of the problem was the ball creating too much noise when touching the goal in the neighbourhoods. Moreover, most homes are located quite near the playground area, therefore the decision was made to use designs without making extra noise to reduce disturbance on the stakeholders.
Through observation, it was found out the overall atmosphere of the playground is quite chaotic due to the children (sporting) energy and the freedom in the game. The momentum is also affected by who plays as there is a clear hierarchy between skill levels and age gap. After the offical game is played with the Scholarshippers, the children all went home afterwards as they did not have the reason or motivation to be there any longer.
The challenge was to have a concept that is applicable to most, if not every field that the Krajicek Foundation has. Out of the differences between the playgrounds, it became clear that there should be made a basic set-up. This way there is a strived concept applicable to all fields. To become usable in outdoor situation, it should have its own protection against vandalism. Through use of durable material to withstand the rough use by the children playing with it.
Exploration Process
Iteration 1
Fair Play Concept (Early Stage)
During the brainstorming stage, the initial ideation process lead to devising a concept around fair play among the children who were already at the playground. This approach was decided based on each members' personal and observational experiences during a sports game. In addition to this the fair play element is a fundamental aspect in every sports as it teaches the importance on how to behave correctly (good sportsmanship) during a game. This will help to result in a better involvement of all children at the playground by building a friendly social cohesion. The iteration will be focusing on football, based on reports, which suggest that this sport was the most popular game played.
The idea was to enhance the competitive nature and to include every player regardless of their skill level. The concept focused around having a restricted area on the playground with the intention of allowing one’s team to score to create a balance on the overall result.
The rules were, two teams started off by having the full use of the field as a normal match. If and when there is an imbalance of skill level, which may be due to age differences, formal training or pure talent, the system gets activated. In this moment the ‘winning team’ now must score from a set area only.
To realise this idea, it was decided that an 'LED mat' would be laid or embedded into the playground. The light would light up certain areas in different colours and patterns to indicate the scoring area as well as to exclude them. Each colours refer to the difficulty level, whilst as the level progresses the scoring area can be more restricted. This would be powered through solar roof or lamp posts depending on the field. The device would be controlled by a console, which is accessible to the Scholarshippers as well as children. Its versatility benefits the children to adapt it into their own rules and play through their creativity.
User Testing
FC Eindhoven
VV Baarlo
The user tests were done with a low-fi version of the LED concept using football cones to represent specific colour boundaries. These tests took place at two different football clubs. Both trainers were enthusiastic about the concept as it can be used to improve footballing skills and allow innovative playing on field. Integrating 'innovative way of playing' should be realised for the final outcome that result in having different use.
It was important to remember that these children are more disciplined during practices. Understanding how many people were required to operate the concept brought another challenge. In these clubs, the children are used to listen and follow their coach direction. However, the nature of Krajicek playground is known for their chaotic yet free playing by the children who are not used to listen and follow rules.
This brought a realisation that the concept should accomodate a way of open-ended play suitable for these playgrounds. Open-ended play, which is defined as activities in which rules are not predefined but rather the user decides on the meaning of objects and interactions when being utilised will provide a key insight throughout this project. Based to user research, an open-ended play gives an opportunity for the children to have freedom without restrictions by preset rules.
Furthermore, throughout many discussions and conversation with knowledgeable people on the field they were concerned about how the Krajicek Foundation would be able to afford these LED installation on every playgrounds as it would be a very costly project for the non-profit organisation. Therefore, after the user testing the members re-evaluated the concept from a different angle.
Iteration 2
Fair Play Concept (Progressed)
From the early testing, it became clear that the concept should contain open-ended play and not deter the players from feeling to restricted. One of the goals was to let the children come up with their own rules and games for the final design. The fine line between open and restricted play was one of the areas that needed to be addressed in this iteration.
From the previous concept, the interactive LED tiles was developed that can be achieved without being too costly. Making it lightweight (that can be lifted by children) and mobile will provide flexibility/interactive for the children when creating their own games. Another research suggest that after the first trial children are able to develop an ability to explore new creative interactions during the resting moment afterward. Once coming back to the game they are able to continue and be more engaged as the game evolved by their creativity over time.
Initially the shape of the tile needed to be decided. After deliberated sketching the hexagonal shaped was agreed upon, not only its ability to cluster with many of the same tiles together but it has a resemblance to the shapes of a football. The tile needs to be thin as possible to prevent from potential hazards such as tripping while not disrupting the ball movements when rolled over. The material used will need to be durable and shock proof for long-term usage.
Early Prototype
For the purpose of an early prototype, a high density foam was used due to its relatively easy shaping process. However, to be used for user testing it was a brittle material and so a further research was done to look for a stronger material to be used during the final prototype stage. Exploration of different types of form and plastics were considered but these had shortcomings on the need for the tiles, therefore the rubber based composites were focused during research. In addition to this, the hexagonal shape of the tile will require a material that could be molded with the technical capabilities available within the project.
The LED strips were programmed and incorporated into the grooves of the foam. On top of the surface a layer of frosted plastic sheet was placed and positioned with pins to properly situate on the surface. The LEDs were controlled by Teensy that can be wirelessly controlled and powered by a non board li-ion battery pack. In order to achieve the initial design goals the next step will be focusing on the interaction and the possible materials to be used for final tiles.
Iteration 3
LED's Play Concept
The initial start of the third iteration was to determine the material the tile was going to be made of. It needed to be weatherproof, durable and rugged enough for heavy use on the field while relatively cheap. Through research, recycled rubber granulate was agreed upon as it has properties such as soft, waterproof, rough and easily malleable into the desired shape. During this time the interaction elements with the tile and its users were further explored and defined using insights and analysis gained from previous observations and user tests. One of these aspects was about interpreting the fair play concept where one would interpret as including themselves more into the game. From this the idea of using a remote as controllers for the LED tiles was proposed and was re-evaluated. Although this brought to conclude that the game would rely too heavily on the Scholarshipper, who would control it, instead of the children who are the main focus.
Devising a feature that would allow both side to participate equally, led to an app by Krajicek Foundation that could be download. And by doing this both users would be able to control the tiles. But this also created an issue where because phones are fragile the children would generally keep them outside the field for safety. By intervening the game with phone could potentially reduce the motivation of the children as well. Instead, a thick yet soft remote which you can easily throw to one another can keep up with the speed and dynamics of the game. This was considered through generating role play by the members whom realised that there were some impulses when changing role very quickly to decide the colour of the tiles. And during their play, users may not want to think too much, so to increase playfulness to the interaction as well as intuitive, only three distinctive LED colours (red, green, blue) were chosen for the tiles.
Materials
Rubber Granules
LED Lights
Arduino
Teensy
Fabrication of the Final Tiles
The process of making the tile started off with making the mold. The mold itself was realised through solid works with the correct dimensions and was built with plywood. The fabrication of the tiles was done using a cold press method whether rubber granulate grains was mixed with polyurethane glue and poured into the mold. This was let to cure for 48 hours. With the physical tiles made, LED strips were placed through the grooves around the edge of each tiles.
Final Outcome
The LED's Play tiles made out of rubber granules, allows the user to control three different LED coloured lights. These lights can be adapted by the children into their play at the playground and be further utilised to improve quality of the game.
Overall the tiles were an effective tool to enhance the sporting atmosphere on the field. The children were able to play for a longer period in the field in comparison to previous observations. The game was fast paced as a regular game of football and the tiles did not hinder the playing momentum. The children were able to dictate their own games and rules. The tiles were lightweight and mobile enough to be moved by a single child. It was also able to resist from physical impacts while being moved around quite frequently without crumbling into pieces.
However, the IR remotes and receiver lead to a down side due to lack of responsive feedback that were not able to keep up with the fast paced game nor did it work each time. Therefore, for future development a more effective controlling feature will need to be considered and implemented into the tiles.
Final User Test at Krajicek Playground
Four children were present and played an extended game of football with the LED's Play tiles on field. Before the game they were given a quick briefing on the concept of these tiles. Based on observations the children showed enthusiasm during the game, they had adopted the scoring game that was implemented using these tiles. The shown colour from the tiles may determine as to whether one may or is not able to score within that area. They challenged themselves by following to the rules throughout the game and showed good sportsmanship.
Two children, who were regulars, commented on how the integration with the tiles is more fund to play than regular games or trainings. The ability to vary the rules of the game through use of LED lights and controlling the location of tiles on the field had given in a positive result. However, the limitation of the remote connections created some disappointment as they had to point it to the IR receiver directly to operate.
Other children also mentioned they liked the tiles equally as a normal game of football. One commented they did not enjoy the tiles as much as others because he found the rules became too difficult for scoring and was changed more often than he would liked it to. Mentioning if he was aged similarly with the older children it would have been easier.
It is still yet to be defined as to whether the tiles would eventually lose its initial novelty, but as of now it has proven to add a positive and interactive element to a normal game play.
The LED's Play helps to create a positive and interactive sporting environment at Krajicek Playgrounds through open-ended play while allowing the children to implement their input into the games.
