Criteria
- must be robust in order to survive the day to day use of children.
- have a smaller more relevant range of features.
- could have an inviting colour scheme
- a simplified interface
Existing digital children’s devices…
Firefly Childrens phone. Note the bright colours and simplyfied push button interface. Also generic sex specific symbols to ‘phone mum’ or ‘phone dad’ . And next to it a similar design from a Japanese developer. These phone are marketed for ages 4 years and above.
These devices are very much what i would imagine a level 1 Learning Lasso.
In addition to the above examples the ‘One laptop per Child’ inititive has a unique opertion interface and ethos detailed below,
OLPC is about to revolutionize the existing concept of a computer interface.
Beginning with Seymour Papert’s simple observation that children are knowledge workers like any adult, only more so, we decided they needed a user-interface tailored to their specific type of knowledge work: learning. So, working together with teams from Pentagram and Red Hat, we created SUGAR, a “zoom” interface that graphically captures their world of fellow learners and teachers as collaborators, emphasizing the connections within the community, among people, and their activities.”
Below is the standard OLPC interface. Although with English labeling.
Networking is Visual and significantly more decipherable then more contemporary interfaces.
The development of a Level 1 Learning Lasso would take key design and implementation principles from the above examples. Both in Hardware, Software and Design Ethos,
Links/
Further reading on the Principles of OLPC interface and Demo
Firefly Press release
