Things aren't what they seem to be
Yvonne Rogers, Mike Scaife, Eric Harris, Ted Phelps, Sara A. Price, Hilary Smith, Henk Muller, Cliff Randell, Andrew Moss, Ian M. Taylor, Danaë Stanton Fraser, Claire L O’Malley, Greta Corke, Silvia Gabrielli · 2002
How does designing for novel experiences with largely untried technologies get its inspiration? Here we report on a project whose goal was to promote learning through novel, playful visions of technologies. To this end, we experimented with a diversity of ambient and pervasive technologies to inspire and drive our design. Working as a large multi-disciplinary group of researchers and designers we developed novel and imaginative experiences for children. To crystallise our ideas we designed, implemented and experimented with a mixed reality adventure game, where children had to hunt an elusive, virtual creature called the Snark, in a large interactive environment. We describe our experiences, reflecting on the process of design inspiration in an area where so much remains unknown.