We describe the design and evaluation of Playground Architect, a multi-player game designed to help shy children gain social confidence. The game is played by a small group of children around an interactive tabletop surface using a tangible user interface. The game was evaluated with 32 children (mean age 9.5). All players enjoyed the game. Shy children enjoyed being in charge and were quite talkative during play. Interviews with teachers show that some shy children behaved notably more outgoing. These results illustrate the potential of socially educational games.

This paper describes the ESPranto Software Development Kit, which supports the development of sensor/actuator based applications, most notably educational toys and games. It enables non-technical users, such as parents, teachers, game developers and psychologists, to specify applications by themselves. The SDK allows them to start off quickly with developing simple applications. Then, as their programming skills increase with experience, the SDK supports them to create more complex applications. This is achieved by offering a complete tool chain with one, consistent programming paradigm. Each link is a separate tool offering a tailored amount of flexibility and complexity. To ensure that users can understand the feedback the SDK provides them, it is given in terms of the tool currently used. Furthermore, by preventing runtime errors, a user can be sure a program will work correctly if it compiles. We validated the ESPranto SDK partially by tests, but mainly by monitoring users applying the SDK. In practice the ESPranto SDK indeed proved to meet its design goals for all of its intended users.

In this paper we describe TagTiles, a tangible electronic board game for educational purposes. It was designed to be suitable for investigating the balance between challenge and control by providing fine-grained and wide ranged difficulty levels. TagTiles can address a range of skills including fine motor skills, cognitive and social skills. Evaluation of the game showed that the children appreciated the game and that most of them were offered a challenge that was appropriate for their skill level.

This paper describes the design of Camelot, a mobile outdoor game for small groups of children aged 7-10. Camelot was designed with the aim to encourage social interaction between the players and to encourage physical activity. The paper extends the research literature on design methodology for children, by recording and reflecting upon the lessons learnt by applying a range of techniques for involving children in the design of interactive systems.