Children’s Media Foundation: VR + Kids Roadshow
2018
Funded by the Children’s Media Foundation
Alison Norrington, Story Central & Dylan Yamada-Rice, Dubit
In 2018, I co-ordinated two events with Alison Norrington of Story Central for the Children’s Media Foundation roadshow on the topic of children and Virtual Reality. The first event was a collaborative networking event on the topic of Health and Safety hosted by Dubit. The event at Dubit focused on bringing together industry experts and academics on the topic of ‘crossing physical and virtual worlds in children’s VR’.
The event started with an introduction to an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project on design standards for location-based immersive experiences by Professor Steve Love of Glasgow School of Art. Following this, I shared insights into Dubit’s ‘Children and VR’ study with a particular emphasis on the data and findings that showed how children wanted easier ways to acclimatise from physical to virtual world. Dubit also shared it’ s perspectives on telling narratives across physical and virtual domains.
The final two presentations came from Eleanor Dare of Royal College of Art about her AR books and Professor Mark Mon Williams of the University of Leeds who talked how design could help alleviate some of the pressure VR places on some children’s eyes.
Following this event Alison Norrington produced a set of guidelines and prompts based on the outcomes of the presentations and emerging discussions:
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At the end of the roadshow I hosted an event at the Royal College of Art where I asked industry partners and academics to work in partnership with MA Information Experience Design and Digital Direction students to create a physical VR prototype based on the prompts shown above.
The event started with an introduction to an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project on design standards for location-based immersive experiences by Professor Steve Love of Glasgow School of Art. Following this, I shared insights into Dubit’s ‘Children and VR’ study with a particular emphasis on the data and findings that showed how children wanted easier ways to acclimatise from physical to virtual world. Dubit also shared it’ s perspectives on telling narratives across physical and virtual domains.
The final two presentations came from Eleanor Dare of Royal College of Art about her AR books and Professor Mark Mon Williams of the University of Leeds who talked how design could help alleviate some of the pressure VR places on some children’s eyes.
Following this event Alison Norrington produced a set of guidelines and prompts based on the outcomes of the presentations and emerging discussions:
