Breaking down traditional barriers

Isobel has just turned 4 and uses a computer mouse to (attempt to) navigate sites such as CBeebies.  She finds the mouse challenging and frustrating.  At such a young age her motor movement abilities are still developing.  Combine the motor skills required with spatial concepts necessary to effectively use the mouse and it’s easy to understand Bel’s frustration when she tries to click the Charlie and Lola thumbnail but instead finds herself watching Finley the Fire Engine. 

Bel is slowly improving her mouse control but it’s taking time.  While Bel’s thoughts are concentrated on the mastering of the mouse and the precision control required to click the tiny thumbnails or links, her experience of the Cbeebies web site is somewhat reduced.

Interactions such as drag and drop create more frustrations as Bel struggles to keep the pressure on the mouse button.

I thought it would be interesting to see how Isobel finds an interface that she can interact with pretty much as she interacts with everyday objects.  So yesterday Bel came to our Conchango studio so I could see how she handles Microsoft Surface.  I didn’t give her any warning that she was about to become a guinea pig for me to see how she would interact with the tabletop using touch and gesture.  Not a mouse in site.

As Bel stood next to the interactive tabletop I subtly introduced her to the water attract screensaver, being careful not to describe the unit as a computer to see whether the ease of direct digital manipulation would disguise the technology.

Isobel was immediately captivated by the water simulation that creates ripples when touched.  In no time she was hands-on.  There weren’t the usual oohs and aahs as she played with the water but if you remove the technology from this experience then what is so amazing about it?  To me Microsoft Surface is a complex mix of hardware and software, but to a 4 year old the technology is invisible - it’s not much more than a table that she can do some interesting stuff on.

I pointed to one of the access points, Bel reached out and tapped it.   Next, I scrolled through the demo applications.  Instinctively Bel reached out and copied my actions scrolling through the application with surprising ease.  Bel did not display any of the hesitancy she normally displays in digital-situations but much more the confidence of a non-digital situation.

We then spent the next 30 minutes working our way through the photo app, the music app, photo paint, the piano and Identity Mine’s air hockey.

I preloaded the photo application with photos of family & friends and some of Bel’s favourite TV characters. Isobel instinctively started to explore and manipulate the photos.  She found selecting, moving and orientating the photos very intuitive using natural gestures. She took a little guidance to get a handle on photo resizing but by the time she’d played for 15 minutes she had got to grips with it and could shrink and enlarge the photos with relative ease.

 

With the surface piano Bel had no problems playing the usual tuneless racket that she has mastered so well on her grandma’s piano. Air Hockey, a game she isn’t familiar with, required no introduction to as she demonstrated her dad’s competitive streak with a spirited performance against Matt.

Photo paint took a few minutes for Bel to master as her paint strokes caused the canvas to move but soon she got the hang of this as she created her masterpiece.  An amusing observation was how Isobel wiped her painting finger on her trousers each time before she dipped her finger in the virtual paint palette.  This highlights how the direct manipulation and natural gestures of Microsoft Surface can blur the real and virtual world.

 

The experience was certainly memorable for Bel who listed all her friends at nursery that she is going to tell about Microsoft Surface. Isobel found the whole Surface experience fun and easy to use and the touch and natural gestures overcame the challenges of normal PC operations.   I now have some explaining to do as to why Father Christmas can’t fit a Surface unit on his sleigh.

Related posts:

Surface Computers as Interactive Learning Platform for Kinesthetic Learners

Digital Play as an Alternative to Drugs

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