The Wonder Playhouse is a concept inspired by my urban upbringing, I designed an interactive play space for children aged 4-12 to play and build. This play space blends digital and physical experience with screens, lighting and contructive parts.
Current children's playground equipment fails to offer dynamic interaction and personalized experiences based on children's behaviors and preferences, limiting their creative development and social interaction.
1. A playground should be more than just a collection of facilities.
As cities become more dense, children have limited opportunities to play outdoors. Playgrounds should not only be used as a place to display motor skills, but also as a place where play can become creative.
2. Lack inclusivity
ities, backgrounds, or ages. This can lead to unequal play experiences for some children. Furthermore, the fixed size of play equipment typically limits the participation of a broader age range of children.
3. Technology extends imagination and play
When screens, lights, and wires are added to amusement rides, more play possibilities can be created.
The main frame is the body of the playhouse, made up with 35 interactable light cubes. There is a transparent oled screen on one side for games.
This is a transparent oled screen providing games based on construction and lights.
Usage:
To show game control interface
Each cube can be lighted up and change colors by tap. They are also moveable to be stacked to build up a playspace.
Materials:
Outside: Transparent silica gel;
Inside: PVC cube equipped with light bulbs, sensors, and a microchip.
Usage:
1. Users can tap to light up lights and switch colors;
2. As a construction game;
3. Scene construction for games。
Comparing to kids' body sizes are different from ages, its dimensions are ideal for children aged 4-12, accommodating both standing and sitting postures.
By analyzing the children's journey maps, I summarized their outdoor activity schedules throughout the day. This analysis enabled me to identify design opportunities in outdoor settings and contemplate the types of play projects children might be interested in engaging with.
This is a part of the ideation for this project, showing some sketches I made of the interactive playground concept. Most of the concepts are thought to developing kids’ motor skills, interactive and some digital content.
After settling on the concept of an interactive space, I utilized Lego bricks to construct several three-dimensional models. As evident in Figure 2, these models bear a close resemblance to the final design. This modeling session was instrumental in helping me envision the user experience within the space.
