Girls and Boys stay in to playCreating inclusive and exclusive computer

entertainment for children+

Summary of SIGIS projectJames Stewart

University of Edinburghj.k.stewart@ed.ac.uk

SIGIS• Strategies of Inclusion: Gender in the

Information Society• 5 centres/countries, 20 experts• 48 cases

– Designers/producers– Users– Public private and voluntary sectors– Products, education, services– Play and fun

• Cross cutting analysis• Several volumes, website,leaflets, papers,

and book appearing soon• www.sigis-ist.org

Pleasure, Play and Fun• The Gathering: Computer parties as means for gender inclusion

Hege Nordli,• The Gathering Experience: A User study of a Computer Party Hege

Nordli• The Gender Game: A study of Norwegian computer game designers

Helen Jøsok Gansmo, Hege Nordli, Knut H. Sørensen,• Computing: Excludingly boring at school, includingly cool at home

Helen Jøsok Gansmo• IT Beat: Bringing Pop and Glam to IT Lisa Pitt• Don't leave IT to the boys! Lisa Pitt• Boys and girls stay in to play: Creating computer entertainment for

children James Stewart• Girls Just Want To Have Fun Aphra Kerr

• Inclusion through fun and play,Helen Jøsok Gansmo

SIGIS Approach

• Social Shaping of Technology & Social Learning

• Robin Williams, James Stewart and Roger Slack (2005) Experimenting with Information and Communication Technologies: Social Learning in Technological Innovation, Edward Elgar

• ICTs and gender have multiple meanings and practical embodiment, that change dynamically, and shape each other => changing artefacts and usages

• Study strategies of inclusion, and the engagement of users with them.

• Aim to produce guidelines for Practionners and Policy Makers

Themes• Informal learning • Informal economy of everyday life: local

experts• Fun and pleasure• Self-inclusion

• Sources of inspiration for design• Gender sensitive design• Empowerment of women designers

• Construction of the User

Resources for building representations of the user

r e p r e s e n t a t i o n

o f u s e r

d i r e c t

i n v o l v e m e n t

o f u s e r

i n d i r e c t

e v i d e n c e

a b o u t u s e r s

c o n s t r u c t i o n s o f t h e u s e r

- l i t t l e m a r k e t i n f o o n

e x i s t i n g u s e r s

- d e m a n d / m a r k e t f o r

o t h e r p r o d u c t s

- c o m p e t i t o r s

- u s e r p a n e l s

- m a r k e t r e s e a r c h

- t r i a l s

- i n n o f u s i o n

- v i s i o n s o f t e c h n o l o g y

- f i c t i o n s / m y t h s ? a b o u t t h e u s e r

- e x p e r t p r o x i e s e g e x p e r i e n c e o f

e n g i n e e r s / i n t e r m e d i a r i e s

Play, leisure and ICT• ICTs can be used for leisure and play in many

ways.• Traditional ‘game’ just one playful use.• Fun and play in non-leisure: work, learning etc:

design of technology as fun.• Legitimacy of types of play

• Emergence of many new playful uses of ICTs in recent years.

• Look at idea of ICT-based play rather than gaming

• Robots, i-TV, mobile phones, chat, blogs, diaries, music etc

Dimensions of Consumption (Holt 1995)

Autotelic Instrumental

Object Action EXPERIENCE INTEGRATION STRUCTURE of ACTION

Interpersonal PLAY CLASSIFICATION

PURPOSE OF ACTION

Holt, D. B. (1995). "How Consumers Consumer: a Typology of Consumption Practices." Journal of Consumer Research 22(June): 1-16.

Girls and Boys stay in to play

• Ijsfontein, Amsterdam• Games and multimedia play and

education products for children (Museums, CD Rom, interactive TV)

• Interaction designers• Work primarily on commission• Outside mainstream ‘boy game’ culture• Girl-game niche emerged by chance.• General Store, Hema approached them

for ‘girl games’• Interview with MD and female designer

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Boys2Girls

Shaping design• Interaction design concept• I-methodology• Artist’s creativity• Testing with users (demand)• Experience with existing products• Research on supply of related products• Criteria of commissioning organisation

• Girl-games - ‘Girly’ content• Aesthetics - physical world, ‘girly’ design.• Gender neutral - Multiple interaction styles -

Cooperation and competition, goals and exploration.

Constructions of users• Designers

– Children as particular users of games and entertainment– Boys and girls as different types of users of games and

play:

• Publishers and designers:– Recognise market, but not willing to take risk

• Museums and education publishers– Recognise age but not gender

• The General store– A particular girl-child market not currently well served

• Parents– Educational concerns and differentiated attitudes to girls

and boys play and ICT use.

• Girls– What is appropriate and desirable in play, aesthetics and

ICTs

Findings I• Girls play differently to boys: spectrum

• Games industry is boy-focused.

• ‘Girl games’ can be used as a strategy for product differentiation.

• Products can be made inclusive – appealing to boys and girls, or exclusive, appealing to girls only.

– Girl Content: need to make what girls want - multiple interpretations of this.

– Interaction style and game structure involving cooperation and exploration

– Need to balance cooperative with competitive game elements, and undirected exploration with goals to create a compelling inclusive product.

Findings II

• Girl appeal not demanded or recognised by many of those commissioning work.

• The design process is typically is informed by own memories and dominant market form of entertainment for girls and traditional girl themes

• Edutainment important feature of play products for girls, especially around purchasing.

• Parents key intermediaries

• Play products not recognisably ‘video games’ - education, life-play, complementary to other media forms

General Design Conclusions

• Do not apply a dichotomous and fixed gender perspective.

• Gender awareness on the other hand is crucial, but the product does not need to be labelled with gender.

• Start from established interests seems to be a more fruitful strategy

• Make the technology flexible and open to alterations in line with the user's preferences and interests

• Contribute to deconstructing the binary images of gendered ICT practices, but be subtle rather than explicit in your attempts to change ICT and gender.