Abstract According to the need density hypothesis, adolescents are at risk for problematic gaming when they only experience satisfaction of their basic psychological needs within, but not outside, the gaming context. This cross-sectional study among daily gamers (N = 309, M age = 15.63, 94.8% boys) is the first to examine this hypothesis in adolescence, thereby comparing adolescents’ need fulfillment between the contexts of video games and school and examining the role of need fulfilment in both contexts in relation to problematic gaming and school outcomes. Response surface analysis showed that adolescents’ overall need satisfaction (across the two contexts) was related to lower problematic gaming and less maladaptive school outcomes. Consistent with the need density hypothesis, adolescents reported more problematic gaming, school disengagement and school burnout when high need satisfaction in the gaming context co-occurred with either low need satisfaction or high need frustration at school. Directions for future research are discussed.

This paper addresses a critical gap within the Interaction Design and Children (IDC) community, known for its use of participatory methods, by investigating the application of such approaches in science communication and dissemination with and for children. Through a case study with a cross-disciplinary literature review, we examine a participatory design process aimed at developing a research dissemination strategy through a multi-stakeholder approach. Our findings underscore the interconnectedness of what is communicated (content) and how it is presented (form). Key considerations of research ethics, child-led research, and children’s rights and benefits motivated why particular design decisions were made (rationale). We argue for comprehensive training of the next generation of IDC scholars in meaningful participatory science communication and dissemination, supporting positive impacts on children’s lives and bridging the gap between IDC research, practice, and broader societal engagement.

In 2018, Belgium made the world news for being the first country to ban loot boxes in games for all its inhabitants. As players’ freedom to purchase loot boxes was restricted, however, methods of circumventing the ban came into practice. Departing from counterplay theory, we drew from an online survey among Belgian adolescents aged 11 18 with two questions in mind: what counterplay practices are used to circumvent the Belgian ban on loot boxes, and how do counterplayers (N = 124) compare to non counterplayers (N = 329) in terms of their engagement with loot boxes and games more broadly? Our findings suggest that counterplayers resist current regulatory arrangements in a myriad of ways, delineating the boundaries of a national ban in a global game ecology. Counterplayers appeared to differentiate themselves from non counterplayers both in terms of depth characteristics (sense of belonging to an online community, perceived gaming ability, gaming disorder, and risky loot box use) and breadth characteristics (frequency of skin betting, selling loot box rewards, and (re)watching loot box opening livestreams). Ultimately, our study may tease out debate on how to regulate games successfully in the face of players’ technical abilities and motivation to gain access.

The use of low-cost sensors to collect environmental data can enable citizens to express environmental concerns and foster community building and activism. However, when made public, citizen data is often detached from the subjective experiences integral to citizen sensing. Our work with youngsters from diverse backgrounds explores how existing environmental datasets can be reactivated to engage new stakeholders and discussions. We present a research through design project with air quality data and draw attention to the role of ambiguity in our design process. We synthesize our reflections by discussing three design aspects that can make sense of ambiguity and encourage critical engagements with environmental data. Our goal is to offer a design-oriented account of how citizen-generated environmental data can be reactivated to express matters of concern.

Drawing from a present need as well as a growing interest towards developing methods to engage participants in research remotely [1,2], this workshop focuses on identifying opportunities and challenges around designing with children from an embodiment perspective [3,4,5,6,10,11,12,13,15]. Themed around whole body interaction and digital technologies [3,7,8,9,10,11,14,15,16,17,18,20,21] the aim of this workshop is to gain methodological insights for the remote participation of children in design, and arrive at design insights addressing the question how we can design remote, inclusive whole body interactions for and with children while attending to child participants’ multimodal communication and bodily engagement [19,21] in a physically dislocated setting [1,2]. The workshop will involve discussions around data gathering from different angles, including relational, ethical, safety and practical perspectives, to create a comprehensive picture of what it entails to orchestrate embodied co-design workshops with children virtually. Outputs from the workshop will contribute to the IDC community by offering methodological insights from attendees’ own experience and presented case studies from researchers and practitioners from both non-academic and academic settings to support children's embodied engagement in remote workshop situations and beyond.

Whereas past CHI-related work has paid attention to various elements of the esports industry, there exists a scarcity of such research on the increasing convergence between esports and gambling. This study, therefore, aimed to shed light on the emerging phenomenon of esports betting in two ways. First, we theorized about its characteristics according to the 5W1H framework. Second, using semi-structured laddering interviews and Means-End Chain Theory, we assessed the esports betting motivations of young, male and recreational gamblers who interact with monetary and skin betting websites. Our results show that gamblers follow various motivational pathways when using an esports betting platform and construct their motives in relation to platform-specific properties and personal values. As such, we demonstrate that a holistic understanding of esports betting is of utmost importance if we want to explain and investigate its appeal to a worldwide audience.

This paper reports on a study to understand the effects the MemoLine visualization tool has on the interview process for evaluating long term user experience with children. Modifications were made to the MemoLine to try to improve consistency in reporting periods of no play. A within-subject design study was conducted using the MemoLine with interviews, and just interviews, of a suite of educational games over a 12-week period. The participants were 22 children, aged between 8 and 9 years, from a UK primary school. Three constructs were analyzed: Game Play, Learning and Ease of Use. The results showed that using the MemoLine's visualization tool did not aid the children to recall past experience in comparison to just conducting an interview. In addition, the changes to the tool did not appear to aid consistency when reporting periods of no play and the appropriateness of the MemoLine is critically reflected upon.

Do game design elements like badges have one, fixed motivational effect or can they have several different? Self-Determination Theory suggests that people situationally appraise the functional significance or psychological meaning of a given stimulus, which can result in different motivational states, but there is little empirical work observing actual functionalisations of game design elements. We therefore conducted a qualitative in-the-wild diary and interview study with 81 university students who reported on their experiences with badges on two popular gamified online learning platforms, Khan Academy and Codecademy . Participants functionalised badges in nine distinct ways that only partially align with prior theory. Functionalisations shaped experience and motivation and prompted function-aligned behaviour. Badge design details fostered but did not determine different functionalisations, while no user or context characteristics were identified that reliably linked to particular functionalisations. We conclude that future research may need to conceptualise game design elements in a more differentiated way to capture what aspects support different motivational functions.

Although seemingly evident, 'fun' in Participatory Design (PD) processes involving children generally remains implicit. In this paper, we explore fun as a user gain since the benefits that children gain from PD are relatively unexplored. We reflect on 'Making Things!', a case study involving children in the design of FabLab workshops for the future. Our findings show that the child-participants gain from the process through fun in overcoming challenges, working towards finalised objects, experimenting, and interacting with others. Based on our findings, we posit that fun can be a direct gain of children participating in PD, but also relates to additional user gains (e.g. developing self-esteem). Furthermore, we hypothesise that opening up the assessment of children's user gains would fit the notion of the child as process designer. These findings extend the debate on benefits children can gain through PD and highlight the importance of fun as a user gain.

Children's play objects are increasingly shaped by technological innovations that can transform them into hybrid, internet-connected toys, a phenomenon referred to as the Internet of Toys. Previous research has presented user research on connected toys, but little is known how to approach them from a design perspective. This paper investigates whether and how an animistic design perspective can foster a fruitful exploration of the design potentialities of connected toys. It addresses this question by analysing three design concepts of connected toys that were developed in the course of an R&D project. These included a high-tech bracelet with digital passport, a card game with a customizable 3D-printed figurine, and a robot as a board game play mate. The results show how the design qualities of connected toys can be categorized on a spectrum ranging from a certainty-driven, problem-solving logic to an uncertainty-driven, animistic design perspective. The contribution of this study is a better understanding of how connected toys emerge in a broader ecology of children, toys, and data that all act upon each other. By embracing the uncertainty in this complex and fluid network of subjects and objects, the animistic design perspective allows to explore a broad set of design opportunities relevant in the realm of the Internet of Toys.

OBJECTIVE: To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials assessing the effectiveness of serious games in improving knowledge and/or self-management behaviors in young people with chronic conditions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors searched the databases PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Sciences, and PsychINFO for articles published between January 1990 and January 2014. Reference lists were hand-searched to retrieve additional studies. Randomized controlled trials that compared a digital game with either standard education or no specific education in a population of children and/or adolescents with chronic conditions were included. RESULTS: The authors identified 9 studies in which the effectiveness of serious games in young people with chronic conditions was evaluated using a randomized controlled trials design. Six studies found a significant improvement of knowledge in the game group from pretest to posttest; 4 studies showed significantly better knowledge in the game group than in the control group after the intervention. Two studies reported significantly better self-management in the game group than in the control group after the intervention. Seven studies were included in the meta-analysis. For knowledge, pooled estimate of Hedges' gu was 0.361 (95% confidence intervals, 0.098-0.624), demonstrating that serious games improve knowledge in patients. For self-management, pooled estimate of Hedges' gu was 0.310 (95% confidence intervals, 0.122-0.497), showing that gaming improves self-management behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: The authors' meta-analysis shows that educational video games can be effective in improving knowledge and self-management in young people with chronic conditions.

Supporting young children's play in the digital world is a challenging endeavor. Little is known, however, about the parental beliefs and mediation practices regarding children's facilitated play in hybrid (mixed digital/physical) environments and how one can account for this through design. Following a Value Sensitive Design approach, we performed: 1) a conceptual literature investigation, 2) an empirical survey with 1398 parents of child(ren) aged 4-6 years, and 3) a technical investigation on online customer reviews of hybrid playful products for children. Our findings reveal the role of parents' mediation and beliefs in shaping young children's play. We provide designers with guidance to be accountable of the way design properties can foster parental play beliefs and support adult-child interaction. We conclude that young children's facilitated play in hybrid environments is shaped by both the social context in which it is enacted and the affordances provided through design.

In this paper we explore whether Social Interdependence Theory (SIT) is a useful theoretical framework to anticipate on challenging intragroup dynamics in co-design with children. According to SIT, there are five principles that mediate the effectiveness of cooperation: positive interdependence, individual accountability, promotive interaction patterns, social skills and group processing. First, we theoretically ground six challenging group dynamics encountered in a previous study. Next, we introduce SIT and describe how we applied each of the five mediating principles in a new case study in which 49 children aged 9 to 10 were involved in a series of co-design sessions. Afterwards, we present our findings and reflect upon the SIT inspired co-design procedure. Finally we touch upon topics for further research and we make a call for more research on SIT in the Child Computer Interaction (CCI) community.

Parental control software enables parents to support risk-management of their children's digital media use. However, tools to support online opportunities are left unexplored. This paper presents an explorative inquiry into stakeholder values related to parental software for young children, using a Value Sensitive Design approach. By studying values, we aim to illuminate design of parental software solutions that are responsive to the issues families find most important. We engaged in value exploration of corporate and parental values, and conducted a workshop with the corporate stakeholders to align stakeholder values. The results highlight the importance of values such as 'control for safety' and 'involvement' in the development of parental software for young children. The contribution of this paper lies in the understanding of stakeholder needs and values concerning software tools that balance online risks and opportunities for young children.

We describe a study of Monkey Tales, an educational game targeted at primary school children. Starting from the assumption that all meaning is socially constructed, we focus our attention on the way an educational game, and its balance between fun and serious aspects, is constructed in public texts (game manufacturer's communication and game reviews) and in individual use (the way players and their parents talk about the game). Through an analysis of public texts and individual use, we show how the balance between the fun and the serious in Monkey Tales is constructed in different ways.

This paper presents a structured way to evaluate challenging group or 'codesign dynamics' in participatory design processes with children. In the form of a critical reflection on a project in which 103 children were involved as design partners, we describe the most prevalent codesign dynamics. For example, some groups rush too quickly towards consensus to safeguard group cohesiveness instead of examining other choice alternatives (i.e., groupthink). Besides 'groupthink' we describe five more challenging codesign dynamics: 'laughing out loud', 'free riding', 'unequal power', 'apart together' and 'destructive conflict'. We argue that balancing these dynamics has a positive impact on the dialectic process of developing values and ideas in participatory design, as well as on children's motivation. Therefore, the CCI community could benefit from our indepth exploration and categorization of challenging group dynamics when codesigning technology with children.

To encourage ethical practices in participatory design with children the CHECk tool was created. This paper reports on an expert review of the CHECk tool and a validating case study. Four main challenges to the CHECk tool are identified: (1) how to inform children on the research and their role herein, (2) distinguishing between project values and designer or researcher's personal values, (3) accounting for the dynamic nature and social constructedness of values in design, and (4) the emergence of values in all stakeholders including child design partners. We advocate complementing CHECk with interactive storytelling and show how this narrative can be used to not only inform participation and achieve ethical symmetry, but also to negotiate values with child design partners.

Recently, there has been an increased interest in long-term user experience. This paper reports an explorative study concerning the MemoLine instrument, a child-friendly adaptation of the UX Curve method to study long-term user experience concerning games in a retrospective way. The results suggest that children aged 9-11 years were able to use this instrument for recalling and relocating memories on a timeline in a dedicated and consistent way. Furthermore the results also indicate that the children heavily relied upon the visual recognition points, which were added to support recalling and relocating experiences in time.

In this paper, we investigate the usefulness and feasibility of Laddering with young children in User eXperience evaluations. We start with a revision of theoretical literature and guidelines. Developmental literature suggests that children aged two to seven years old have the cognitive capabilities to perform as Laddering interviewees. Next, we put these findings to the test via a practical case. The results of our case study demonstrate that only the older children, aged five years and older, were able to construct meaningful ladders. As for the type of ladders created, our results are in line with literature; children are inclined to attribute external reasons to product preferences rather than internal reasons, and consequently create ladders of attributes and consequences, not reaching for values.

Substantial research effort has been devoted to the design of mobile tourist guides. Although a lot of these guides already provide some naturalness and intelligence in the interaction with users, their user interfaces are mostly object-based. In this article we will argue that, due to the users' limited attention capacity and the great variety of tasks they have to perform on their trips, more emphasis should be put on the integration of tasks within the users' context of activity. Based on the preliminary results of a qualitative user & task analysis, we suggest concrete guidelines and a task hierarchy for a mobile tourist guide UI.

Interactive digital television (iDTV) is a social medium and must therefore be tested in a context as close to real life as possible. This explains why we saw the potential and importance for the involvement of real-life couples in iDTV usability testing. In this article, an experiment that compares single user testing and coparticipation testing with couples for the evaluation of several Flemish iDTV applications is described. The study found that, first, there was less probing needed by the facilitator to think out loud in the think aloud/coparticipation method with couples than in the think aloud/single test user method. Second, couples did not encounter difficulties working together with the iDTV applications. Further, couples did not lose time by discussing irrelevant issues during the test session. A fourth finding is that couples detected more usability hits than single test users. The quality of comments, however, was the same in both conditions. Sixty perecent of the comments consisted of intrinsic suggestions and 40% of general problem detections. Another issue was raised through findings during the test. Couples in general were enthusiastic to participate, put in little effort on their part in the test session, and evaluated the test session as easy and fun to do. On the contrary, single test users in general were not sure whether they would like to participate again in future tests, declared that the test session demanded considerable effort, and evaluated the test session less positively.

This paper discusses the quest for a framework that helps to research and design technology that supports fun activities of preschoolers in the home environment. We therefore review literature within Child-Computer Interaction and the Uses & Gratifications framework in Mass Communication Sciences. We propose that in order to be likeable, a product should fulfill the gratifications of the user. We conceptualize interactive toys and games no longer as tools but as media. Through the use of probes and observations, we adapt and validate our framework to arrive at a final classification of gratifications. Our framework enumerates five important gratifications of preschoolers: (1) challenge & control, (2) social experiences, (3) fantasy, (4) creative & constructive expressions, and (5) body & senses. Furthermore, we detail how basic needs, individual characteristics and societal aspects complement the Likeability Framework.