Library, Kids and theInternet

Hello! My name is Sebi and I’m going to tell you about the project I did with the Huskvarna library, here in Sweden.

Huskvarna Library Renew Children's section What about the Internet?

Requirements Room + media + web Engaging kids Limited budget Concrete & Realistic

...and the Shelf

The shelf was an exhibition shelf recently acquired by the library, made by a local artist. The librarians were very excited about it, and asked me if I could consider somehow including it in the design.

Interactions

between the kids!

Fun, fun, fun!

So I knew the library people (Gunvi and Lo) really liked the shelf, and I knew that the kids loved games and instant messaging.And I also had my own thoughts about what a successful concept should be like.

Based on these factors, I came up with a number of concepts, and I’m going to show 3 of them.

1. Discussion shelf

ROOM WEB

Discussion shelf:- same content in the room and on the web- what kind of media would be appropriate for feedback and discussion?

1. Discussion shelf. Room

In the room, simple post-its and colored pencils worked quite well.

1. Discussion shelf. Room

1. Discussion shelf. Room

1. Discussion shelf. Room

1. Discussion shelf. Room

1. Discussion shelf. Room

1. Discussion shelf. Webhttp://vimeo.com/4947136

On the web:- I integrated with the library blog, which was already there- emoticons worked best for leaving feedback (most expression for the least effort). then came ratings and then written text

2. Chat on shelfhttp://vimeo.com/4947577

Each ‘shelf’ has a IM account (robot), which kids can add to their contact list. When one of them writes to ‘red.shelf’, for instance, the chat robot sends the message to all the contacts in its list. This way kids can be connected anonymously to other kids, using the shelf. Ideally, the discussion will somehow be related to what’s on the shelf (maybe allow chatting from the website, too..?)

2. Chat on shelf. Test run

I had a really nice ‘Wizard of Oz’ ready for testing this concept, but due to technology reasons, the testing didn’t go so well, so I couldn’t get too relevant results.

2. Chat on shelf. Test run

Kids were trying to figure out what was happening, since nothing much was happening...

3. Vote your favoriteshttp://vimeo.com/4947834

Vote your favorites / Honor shelf - make voting fun2 major rules for the ‘game’:- items with the most votes belong in the circle of honor- to vote, drag and drop from the bottom side to the circle

3. Vote your favorites. Test runhttp://vimeo.com/4947697

Test went very well. Kids loved it!In the first part, they were allowed to play all at the same time, and they ‘jumped’ at the game and pulled items in all directions.At one point we had to stop them, they were getting too excited. Then they had to take turns playing. It was extremely interesting to see how they developed strategy for cooperation in order to promote their favorites (girls liked girl games, boys liked boy games)

Next stepsDiscussion shelf Vote favorites

Maybe some dayYes!

• simple• inexpensive• “safe”

Later

• fun!• developers?

Shelf on chat• test itself failed• could still work...

Thank you!