Full paper presentation at CHI'17. Interactive playgrounds are spaces where players engage in collocated, playful activities, in which added digital technology can be designed to promote cognitive, social, and motor skills development. To promote such development, different strategies can be used to implement game mechanics that change player’s in-game behavior. One of such strategies is enticing players to take action through incentives akin to game achievements. We explored if this strategy could be used to influence players’ proxemic behavior in the Interactive Tag Playground, an installation that enhances the traditional game of tag. We placed the ITP in an art gallery, observed hundreds of play sessions, and refined the mechanics, which consisted in projecting collectible particles around the tagger that upon collection by runners resulted only in the embellishment of their circles. We implemented the refined mechanics in a study with 48 children. The playground automatically collected the players’ positions, and analyses show that runners got closer to and moved more towards taggers when using our enticing strategy. This suggests an enticing strategy can be used to influence physical in-game behavior.

1. A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior
in an Interactive Playground
Robby van Delden1, Alejandro Moreno1, Ronald Poppe2, Dennis Reidsma 1, Dirk Heylen1
1 Human Media Interaction, University of Twente
2 Interaction Technology, University of Utrecht

2. Interactive Playground Platform
an entertaining research tool
A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 2

3. A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 3
Changed proxemics
with subtle steering of behavior

4. WHAT,
WHY
& HOW ?
A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 4

5. A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 5
PLAY

6. “PLAY”
A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 6

7. INTERACTIVE PLAY
7A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground

8. 1
A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 8
Interactive slide -
Cognitive Media Technologies Group,
Pompeu Fabra University
e.g. Interactive Slide .. Joan Soler-Adillon, Narcís Parés @alt.chi 09
Controlling Physical Activity.. Pascal Landry, Narcís Parés @wip chi 12
Experience.. to making sense, Laura Malinverni, Edith Ackerman, NP @TEI 16
Water Games -
Cognitive Media Technologies Group,
Pompeu Fabra University
e.g. Massive flux design for an interactive water installation: water games
Narcís Parés Jaume Durany, Anna Carreras @ACE 05

9. A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 9
Commercial Applications,
Yalp Memo
Commercial Applications,
Lumo Play

10. A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 10
Looking for Life,
Snibbe Interactive
Boundary Functions,
Snibbe Interactive
e.g. Social Immersive Media by Snibbe and Raffle (MIT) @ CHI’09

11. Our Interactive Playground Platform
A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 11

12. A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 12

14. A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 14
Why Change Proxemics?

15. A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 15

16. A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 16
Steering Interactive Play Behavior

17. Steering: Require / insist / entice
A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 17

18. Steering: require / Insist / entice
 power-ups (@AMI 2014)
A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 18

19. Steering: require / insist / Entice
 optional mechanics, like achievements
A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 19

20. Steering: require / insist / Entice
 optional mechanics, like achievements
A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 20

21. USER TESTING
A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 21

22. 22

23. A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 23
Exploring the intervention in an art gallery
>600 children
18 days of workshops
4 – 13 years old
Testing the intervention in field trips at our lab:
12 sessions (48 children)
within-subject
5 – 12 years old
using sensed data

24. Results distance
A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 25

25. Results orientation
A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 26
Towards
tagger
Away from
tagger

26. A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in
an Interactive Playground
 A/Our Playground as a Entertaining Research Tool
 Steering Proxemics with an Enticing Strategy
 Using embellishments
 A parallel challenge  transferability
http://www.robbyvd.com/showcases/itp/
slideshare.net/rvandelden @Roberdus r.w.vandelden@utwente.nl
A Thing of Beauty: Steering Behavior in an Interactive Playground 27