Playful User Interfaces

The book is about user interfaces to applications that have been designed for social and physical interaction. The interfaces are ‘playful’, that is, users feel challenged to engage in social and physical interaction because that will be fun. The topics that will be present in this book are interactive playgrounds, urban games using mobiles, sensor-equipped environments for playing, child-computer interaction, tangible game interfaces, interactive tabletop technology and applications, full-body interaction, exertion games, persuasion, engagement, evaluation and user experience. Readers of the book will not only get a survey of state-of-the-art research in these areas, but the chapters in this book will also provide a vision of the future where playful interfaces will be ubiquitous, that is, present and integrated in home, office, recreational, sports and urban environments, emphasizing that in the future in these environments game elements will be integrated and welcomed.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Playful Interfaces: Introduction and History
Part I Public and Mobile Entertainment
Chapter 2 Public Systems Supporting Noninstrumented Body-Based Interaction
Chapter 3 Playing with the Environment
Chapter 4 Designing Mobile and Ubiquitous Games and Playful Interactions

Part II Indoor and Outdoor Playgrounds
Chapter 5 Interactive Playgrounds for Children
Chapter 6 Designing Interactive Outdoor Games for Children
Chapter 7 Smart Ball and a New Dynamic Form of Entertainment

Part III Games for Change, Personalization, and Teaching
Chapter 8 Games for Change: Looking at Models of Persuasion Through the Lens of Design
Chapter 9 Individual and Collaborative Personalization in a Science Museum
Chapter 10 NoProblem! A Collaborative Interface for Teaching Conversation Skills to Children with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder

Part IV Health and Sports
Chapter 11 Designing for Social and Physical Interaction in Exertion Games
Chapter 12 Designing Games to Discourage Sedentary Behaviour

Part V Learning by Creating
Chapter 13 Playing in the Arcade: Designing Tangible Interfaces with MaKey MaKey for Scratch Games
Chapter 14 Playful Creativity: Playing to Create Games on Surfaces
Chapter 15 Bifocal Modeling: Promoting Authentic Scientific Inquiry Through Exploring and Comparing Real and Ideal Systems Linked in Real-Time