Walk Over Me

A decorative banner showing 3 images: a user test with a child, a well-lit photo of the final 16x16 prototype, and a photo from the live demonstration where multiple children are playing on the prototype.

Summary: To spruce up Swedish playgrounds during the winter, I designed, tested, and prototyped light-up tiles!

Skills: User testing with children, iterative rapid design, bodystorming, microcontrollers.

Time spent: 3 months.

Budget: 1000SEK (~98 USD).

Team: David Ekman, Iza Grasselli, Annkatrin Jung, Eva-Maria Veitmaa, Aidan Kidder-Wolff

Myself working on the assembly of the first prototype by taping conductive wire which I soldered.
The 3 iterations of prototypes being tested by users. The first were grad students, then high school students, then families.

The goal was to attract children and families to playgrounds even in the winter. It’s cold and dark for much of the year in Sweden, and the playgrounds see little use during that time. So I, alongside some wonderful teammates, got to work. Following some mind maps, brainstorming, and ideation, we decided to create a light up floor. This floor aimed to recreate and enhance the experience of whack-a-mole and hopscotch. Using different colors and patterns, we would be able to create endless games! The target users were children, though we wanted to support play-collaboration of all ages. In total, we made 16 high fidelity prototypes for the final product demonstration.

Two initial prototype tiles were made out of bed foam, cut plastic, and LED lights attached to an Arduino. Stepping on the tiles would toggle colors between red, green, and blue.

  • From our first round of user testing, we discovered that users enjoyed stepping on tiles more if the tile had some resistance. But, too much resistance led to user’s feeling unbalanced.

The next prototype had much more bed foam. There were 4 tiles, and the programming was kept simple. Stepping on a tile would cycle between red, green, and blue. These colors slowly faded until the tile was pressed again.

  • Our second round of user testing revealed that simple interactivity was more fun than explicit games because it encouraged creative play.

After seeing how popular the tiles were, we decided to once again increase the number of tiles to 16. Furthermore, we used a lazer cutter in tandem with a 3D printer to make the tiles look as professional as possible given our budget. People of all ages absolutely loved it.

An image of 3 children playing on the final prototype during our demonstration.

My favorite part of the project was the unexpected wins. For starters, parents complemented our use of bed foam. Without realizing it, we had created a play area where it was safe for children to fall. Nice! Even better, the whole prototype was broken! Sort of.

While users played, the tiles would occasionally shine unusual colors. This could affect a few or every tile. There must have been a broken connection somewhere. Users thought this was a feature and *loved* it. Users began trying to figure out the “secret” of our board. So long as I praised users for triggering the secret (and pressed the reset button on the Arduino), users actually enjoyed the tiles more.

Our group secretly joked that if anybody figured it out, they should tell us so we can fix it later. If you want to see the glitch in action, see our demo video! (Youtube Video - 4:25 length)

An image of 3 children playing on the final prototype during our demonstration.

Of all the projects I have worked on, this one is my favorite. Nothing felt better than to create something fun, and then to see people adore it. Graduate students were inviting others to help them turn all the tiles green. Children threw tantrums when their parents told them to leave. For the whole presentation, users of many ages played on the tiles. It was marvelous.