Children's participation in the design of physical and on screen-intervention strategies to prevent excessive game play

We address the problem of breaking the flow of gaming to prevent excessive game play. Earlier research on immersive experiences suggests that flow, notably the distorted feeling of time and focused attention, is at the heart of the problem. We explore the topic of excessive game play and its effects with a group of game players. This group consisted of 10 children working together to elaborate on the issues mentioned. Group activities included free-word association, interaction re-labelling exercises and group discussions on player-actor relationships and ideal solutions. Children want control of intervention settings; parental interaction is considered mostly inappropriate. Any intervention strategy should ’understand’ the game and anticipate natural moments. Also, children expect interventions to happen gradually. We present a detailed account of the focus group, formulate its outcome in terms of user requirements and discuss the strategies we designed, implemented and evaluated in a user trial. The main focus of the paper is on the process followed during the focus group and the way in which the children¿s view and needs provided input to the development of flow breaking strategies. The work confirms that the informant design approach provides effective means to guarantee children¿s contribution to the design of interactive systems for children.