Designing Interactive Outdoor Games for Children

Mobile outdoor games for groups of children have emerged recently as a credible technological proposition and as an area of research and development that promises substantial benefits for children regarding a more active lifestyle and the development of social skills. This chapter examines specifically the design of Head Up Games, which are outdoor games that support embodied interaction and where players are collocated, e.g., in a playground, alley, park; the traditional loci of children’s play over centuries. Designing such games and the emerging gaming experience presents its own set of challenges, such as designing the interaction of a group, ensuring pace in the game, and fairness for different contexts and groups of players. Not least, the added value of enhancing outdoor play and games with technology needs to be ensured. We describe some of the lessons learned from the design of a few of these games, how different design methods may contribute to the design process, and methodological issues concerning the early design, the prototyping, and the evaluation of these games.