=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1602/paper4
|storemode=property
|title=Tiles Cards: a Card-based Design Game for Smart Objects Ecosystems
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1602/paper4.pdf
|volume=Vol-1602
|authors=Simone Mora,Jonas Asheim,Anders Kjøllesdal,Monica Divitini
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/avi/MoraAKD16
}}
==Tiles Cards: a Card-based Design Game for Smart Objects Ecosystems==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1602/paper4.pdf
19
Tiles Cards: a card-based design game
for smart objects ecosystems
Simone Mora Monica Divitini Abstract
IDI-NTNU IDI-NTNU We present Tiles Cards, a tool to foster end-user design
Trondheim (Norway) Trondheim (Norway) thinking of smart object applications. Tiles Cards
simone.mora@idi.ntnu.no monica.divitini@idi.ntnu.no facilitate participatory design by abstracting the
complexity of IoT technology into a set of interaction
Jonas Asheim primitives and composition rules accessible to non-
Nice Industridesign AS experts. Further, it promotes creative thinking by
Trondheim (Norway) means of a mission-based game in which teams have
jonas@wearenice.com
to fulfill design tasks under constraints. Tiles Cards is a
generic tool that can specialized to multiple application
Anders Kjøllesdal
domains including learning and games. In this
Nice Industridesign AS
workshop we are presenting results from our pilot study
Trondheim (Norway)
discussing the opportunities of using card games for
anders@wearenice.com
end-user design.
Author Keywords
Design tools; design cards; card game; tangible user
interfaces.
ACM Classification Keywords
H.5.2 Information interfaces and presentation (e.g.,
HCI): User interfaces – Theory and methods
Introduction
Smart objects are everyday objects augmented with
technology to provide digital interactivity on top of a
Copyright is held by the author/owner(s). traditional physical appearance. Examples are: a
AVI, June 07–10, 2016, Bari, Italy paintbrush that samples colors from surfaces and use
20
them as drawing palette in a computer program [20], a Our research aims at developing tools to involve end-
water faucet that lights up in colors to display daily users in the design of smart objects. IoT is a
water consumption data [14] and wood bricks that can technology-driven field characterized by a jargon hard
be composed by children to create computer programs to grasp. In order to enable users to co-design
[8]. Technology can be used either to augment an applications that make use of ecosystems of smart
existing purpose of an object, making it more useful, objects we created a design card game, Tiles cards.
playful or engaging than the ordinary self or to add new
functions that are controlled using the object’s Tiles Cards facilitate end-user involvement in design
affordances; to the extreme that the object may look practice by abstracting the complexity of IoT
magic or enchanted [19]. Smart objects build on technology into a set of interaction primitives and
research on tangible [11] and embodied [5] interaction. composition rules accessible to non-experts. Further, it
They leverage both the emerging field of the Internet of promotes creative thinking by means of a mission-
Things (IoT) for implementing objects’ interconnection based game in which teams have to fulfill design tasks
and data exchange and established HCI theory for under constraints. With Tiles cards we aim at increasing
designing appropriate user interfaces. the number of people that can actively take part to the
design of smart objects ecosystems.
Designing interaction styles for smart objects is more
complex than for traditional graphical user interfaces. Card games as a tool to foster design
Besides the user interface can leverage mainstream thinking
approaches such as keyboards and touchscreens; it can Card-based design tools have been extensively used in
also leverage physical manipulation performed by the participatory design [21]. Cards are useful to present
user on the object self like touching, shaking, tilting or theoretical constructs and making the design practice
squeezing, the presence of nearby people and objects more engaging and playful, thus extending the group of
or its location. Those inputs are often coupled with people that take part in designing new things. They can
simple feedbacks like light patterns, haptic or sound. be an effective vehicle to transfer knowledge between
theory and practice [4], for example to convert
It does not just require to design software functions but theoretical frameworks into guidelines that can be
also the hardware and object’s physical semblance and manipulated in design workshops [4]. Cards facilitate
affordances, requiring skills from the fields of software collaborative and divergent thinking by providing a
and hardware engineering and industrial design. This conversation medium between stakeholders and
task is challenged by the lack of guidelines and tools to designers [3,7,15], further they allow externalizing
understand how the object’s physical affordances and ideas and ensuring that a design space is investigated
design are related [12]. Besides there are several from different point of views. Card-based tools help
technology toolkits that can be used to assist the keeping people at the center of the design process
prototyping phase e.g. Arduino [16] they usually don’t [10,15], they facilitate creative dialogue and shared
specifically support smart object user interface design. understanding. Cards can be a source of inspiration to
21
steer a discussion when it becomes unproductive [9], used by users alone or as part of design workshops
for example by proposing provocative questions to facilitated by designers.
unlock thinking [18]. Cards can be also used to
evaluate, rate or bookmark ideas generated during Each Tiles Card has two side: the front side explains
design sessions [9,15]. the meaning of the card, and provide informative text
and figure; the back of the card describes the category
Cards can be used to play design games [2,15]: (deck) the card belongs to (Figure 1).
games, often collaborative rather than competitive,
which goal is to explore various aspects of a design Cards are color-coded to facilitate sorting; they have
space in a playful manner. Within participatory design imprinted a unique ID to simplify data collection by
games are a commonly used tool used in research for researchers during design workshops. In each deck
building competence, empowering users and engaging single cards are replicated to allow playing multiple
multiple stakeholders [13]. rounds without need re-shuffling. This is meant to leave
combinations of cards used in a game session available
In fact, studies show that game rules add constraints for further reference. For each category we also provide
that can improve design outcomes [2] and foster blank cards that can be personalized by end-users with
creativity. For example turn-taking helps ensuring that custom primitives and game rules. In this way we
everyone is involved in the process [9], roles and rules expect to free participants’ creative impulses and allow
help smoothing power relations and conflict among for thinking-out-of-the-box; popular user-designed
participants [2]. In this perspective cards act as cards can be included in future version of the tool.
physical props to externalize thoughts and help
structuring common grounds that everybody can relate The design of Tiles cards comes from the awareness
to [2]; helping taking risks within the frame of a game. that how IoT manifests itself is very broad. The
different technologies and use cases yield to a complex
Tiles cards design space that can be difficult to navigate without a
Tiles cards is a set of seven decks of cards divided in lot of research and knowledge about the IoT. This
two groups: primitive cards and game cards. The complexity makes it difficult for end-users to engage
former explains concepts proper of tangible interaction and contribute with their ideas in a meaningful way.
and IoT in an informative way, hiding end-users from The game was designed to bridge this discrepancy. It
unnecessary complexities. The latter brings dynamics, leverages the authors previous experience [13] with
rules and goals to be used to gamify the brainstorming using similar of tools, especially when tackling
process. Primitive cards can be used alone as an multifaceted and complex problems, or cultural gaps.
informative tool, to make end-users familiar with
concepts from the HCI and IoT research fields like
Figure 1: Front and back side of a gestural input or haptic feedbacks; or together with
primitive card
game cards to spur design actions. Tiles cards can be
22
In the remaining of this section we briefly describe the Game Cards
different cards desks we created. Tiles cards can be Game cards add game mechanics to the manipulation
Coded information downloaded under the Creative Common license1. of primitive cards in order to foster end-user
participation and facilitate collaborative creative
GOAL Primitive Cards thinking. It has been proved that adding restriction to
Create a concept that displays
information that is useful to the
Primitive cards have both informative and inspiring idea generation activity can improve its outcome [6].
owner, but not understood by roles. They are divided in four categories: objects, We designed games cards to be generic enough to be
anyone else.
input, output and compound actions. Objects cards used for playing multiple games, for example to
EXAMPLE suggest a set of everyday, low-tech things that can be maximize the number or the quality of idea generated,
A wallet with a light that turns made “smarter” by technology; e.g. a bike, a pair of using either collaborative or competitive dynamics.
green when your account balance
is low. shoes or glasses, a wallet. Input and output cards Game cards are divided in three categories: missions,
include interaction primitives that can be used to bonus and criteria.
describe the properties of an interface for smart objects
in terms of gestural inputs e.g. touch, shake, rotate, Missions (Figure 2-top) consist in a list of goals players
Missions M-3 location change; and output provided by the system in teams pursue collaboratively by combining primitive
such as vibration, color change, sounds or phone cards. Example of missions are “Off-screen: create a
notifications. Those primitives have been chosen smart object that solves a task you would normally
because they can be quickly implemented in prototypes have had to use a screen to accomplish” and “Habit
using technology toolkits such as Arduino [16] and changing: create a smart object that helps a user to
User friendly Little Bits [1]; facilitating the transition between design form or change a long-term habit”.
and prototyping. Finally, compound actions cards
WHAT
describe special interaction that can be achieved by an Criteria (Figure 2-bottom) constrain users’ design
Ideas that solve a real need for
users, and which are easy to use ecology of two or more smart objects. Example of actions by providing guidelines to rate the outcomes of
for a large number of people. compound actions are synchro: an input or output missions. Teams can be therefore incited to compete
HOW TO JUDGE performed simultaneously on two or more objects and towards accomplishing a mission by maximizing certain
Would life be easier for the users grouping: a set of objects grouped close to each other. criteria. Example of criteria are: “Enjoyment: How fun
with the ideas than without them? or enjoyable is the smart object for its users”,
Could both your kids and
grandparents use it? Primitive cards can be combined each other, adding “Creativity: How the smart object solves the problem in
input and output capabilities to a set everyday object, a clever and unusual way” and “Feasibility: How the
to define the characteristic of user interfaces for smart smart object solves the problem in a plausible matter,
objects that can implement specific application logics. and that seems realistic to develop”. Criteria can be
Criteria C-8
used to evaluate the outcome of a mission.
Finally, bonuses are cards that modify the gameplay by
Figure 2: Sample missions (top) and
altering the game rules for a given round. This is
criteria (bottom) cards 1
Tiles Cards – http://tilestoolkit.io/cards expected to add elements of chance to disrupt and
23
make the gameplay easier or more difficult. Example of that apply to multiple domains, even if blank cards can
bonuses are “Pickpocket: swap one of your cards with be personalized with domain-specific missions. We will
one of the same category from another players’ hand” consider adding cards bringing domain-specific
and “Mission impossible: the next round will be played dynamics (e.g. learning objectives) into the game.
with two missions cards”.
Primitive cards were well understood by users whose,
End-User Involvement in smart objects we underline, had an IT background. We need need to
design: open challenges verify whether primitives have the same degree of
Application in a pilot workshop acceptance among other user groups.
We piloted Tiles Cards in a small design workshop with
nine students with IT background. The goal of the We observed that the users needed more guidance, for
workshop was to understand whether information example it wasn’t clear how several primitives can be
imprinted on cards were easily understandable. Only combined together or whether there are exclusion
primitive cards were used. We briefly explained to criteria for some of those. We are considering adding a
participants the content of the cards and asked them to cardboard with placeholders and visual guidance for the
design a collaborative game using objects, input and association of the different card types.
output primitives. We let the users play with the cards
and observed their design outcomes (Figure 3). Finally, we need to understand how the outcome of the
design process could support moving into a prototyping
Open Challenges phase, and how the ideas generated can be
The tool was well accepted by users. In particular, we implemented with the help of technology toolkits. In
noticed that cards well served the role of triggers for this perspective we are in the process of developing
Figure 3: Pilot study and example of discussions. Unconventional associations of objects, technology tools to implement primitive cards with
application developed input and outputs added an element of fun and software and hardware tools [17].
creativity. On the contrary, we observed several
challenges that need to be addressed in future work. Conclusions
We presented Tiles Card, a card-based game to include
Most of the idea developed were quite trivial and lacked end-users in the design practice of ecosystem of smart
of creativity. Besides in this study game cards, which objects. Tiles cards serves both the role of (i) making
could have improved the depth of idea produced, were knowledge in field of IoT and tangible interfaces
not used; we need to better understand what are the accessible to non-expert and (ii) fostering end-user
factors that enable idea generation to grow in inclusion in the design process by leveraging card game
complexity and to be grounded in users’ needs. mechanics. Our first pilot study showed a good user
acceptance for the tool, highlighting potentialities and
Further, the cards didn’t support the investigation of a limitations. We are in the process of revising the cards
domain-specific space. Mission card provided guidelines to address the limitations encountered during our pilot
24
study and we are planning new workshops to test both [9] Hornecker, E. Creative Idea Exploration within
primitive and game cards. Future works will investigate the Structure of a Guiding Framework: The Card
Brainstorming Game. Proceedings of TEI, (2010).
how to support the transition between design and
[10] IDEO. IDEO Method Cards: 51 Ways to Inspire
prototyping phases by providing technology tools to Design. (2003).
implement the interaction primitives described on [11] Ishii, H. Tangible Bits: Beyond Pixels.
cards. Proceedings of TEI, (2008).
[12] Kimura, H., Okuda, Y., and Nakajima, T.
Aknowledgements CookieFlavors: Rapid Composition Framework for
Tangible Media. Proceedings of Next Generation
This work is co-funded by the Norsk Design- og
Mobile Applications, Services and Technologies,
arkitektursenter under the Design Driven Innovation (2007), 100–109.
programme and by NTNU Technology Transfer AS. We [13] Kjøllesdal, A., Asheim, J., and Boks, C.
thank all our pilot study participants. Embracing Social Sustainability in Design
Education: A Reflection on a Case Study in Haiti.
References Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research
58, 2 (2014), 173–188.
[14] Kuznetsov, S. and Paulos, E. UpStream:
[1] Bdeir, A. Electronics as material: littleBits. Motivating Water Conservation with Low-Cost
Proceedings of TEI, (2009), 397–400. Water Flow Sensing and Persuasive Displays.
[2] Brandt, E. and Messeter, J. Facilitating Proceedings of CHI, (2010), 1851–1860.
collaboration through design games. Proceedings [15] Lucero, A. and Arrasvuori, J. PLEX Cards: A
of Participatory Design Conference 1, (2004), Source of Inspiration When Designing for
121–131. Playfulness. (2010).
[3] Carneiro, G. and Li, Z. i|o Cards: A Tool to [16] Mellis, D., Banzi, M., Cuartielles, D., and Igoe, T.
Support Collaborative Design of Interactive Arduino: An open electronic prototyping
Objects. Proceedings of DESIRE, (2011), 357–2. platform. Proceedings of CHI Extended Abstracts,
[4] Deng, Y., Antle, A.N., and Neustaedter, C. Tango (2007).
Cards: A Card-Based Design Tool for Informing [17] Mora, S., Divitini, M., and Gianni, F. TILES: an
the Design of Tangible Learning Games. inventor toolkit for interactive objects. In Proc. of
Proceedings of DIS, (2014), 695–704. AVI Conference (Poster), (2016), 1–2.
[5] Dourish, P. Where the Action Is The Foundations [18] Mueller, F., Gibbs, M.R., Vetere, F., and Edge, D.
of Embodied Interaction. The MIT Press, (2001). Supporting the Creative Game Design Process
[6] Finke, R.A., Ward, T.B., and Smith, S.M. Creative with Exertion Cards. Proceedings of CHI, (2014).
Cognition: Theory, Research, and Applications. [19] Rose, D. Enchanted Objects: Design, Human
BRADFORD BOOK, 1996. Desire, and the Internet of Things. (2014).
[7] Halskov, K. and Dalsgård, P. Inspiration Card [20] Ryokai, K., Marti, S., and Ishii, H. I/O brush:
Workshops. Proceedings of DIS, (2006). drawing with everyday objects as ink.
[8] Horn, M.S. and Jacob, R.J.K. Tangible Proceedings of CHI, (2004), 1–8.
Programming in the Classroom with Tern. [21] Vaajakallio, K. and Mattelmäki, T. Design games
Proceedings of CHI Extended Abstracts, (2007), in codesign: as a tool, a mindset and a structure.
1965–1970. CoDesign 10, 1 (2014), 63–77.