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HCI VISTAS, VOLUME-II, 2006-2007 | |||
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A Child's Testimonyto Toy and Game Designers | ||
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Article INS-11./Oct. 2006 |
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This article is in continuation with the earlier one titled as 'User's reality: The big truth of small things!'. It received a lot of appreciation and over 1000 hits in just one month.
 Photo 1.
In the year 2003, during Diwali vacation, I went on a family tour to Gujarat and Rajasthan states. We passed through a village in Gujarat, where I found local artisans selling toys made in terracotta. The toys were so cute that I picked up a whole basket of animal toys meant for children. Honestly, I bought the toys more for myself than my son Paritosh (Pari), who was 5 years old around that time. He liked them but did not seem very keen to possess them. Later on after we returned home, on a leisurely day, I kept the Camel (see Photo 1) before Pari and enticed him to draw it for me.
He struggled for 10-15mnts and completed the picture, signed it, asked me the date and noted it in-between the legs of camel (see Photo 2). Since the day he saw me signing and dating my own sketches, even he started doing the same. As usual, I photographed the picture on my Camera-phone (see Photo 2.). Look at this picture; it is quite amusing and funny! But you will agree that it hardly looks like the camel toy shown in Photo 1.!
I analyze this drawing in four different ways. The apparent distortion of the camel toy, as seen in Photo 2 could be because of following difficulties Pari might have faced.
1. Inadequate motor skills (drawing skills) 2. Difficulty in the comprehension of three dimensionality 3. Difficulty in the interpretation of visual perception 4. Inarticulate mental image (Unfamiliar subject of drawing) As grown ups, we are able to perceive camel's terracotta version (Photo 1) because we have a very articulate mental image of the real camel. Although Pari got to see a lot of camels during our tour, I would still consider it as insufficient exposure for a child to be able construct its proper mental image. In case of Pari, it can't be due to insufficient motor skills, as he inherits my drawing skills. He is quite extraordinary in that respect, as he stood first in the state level Camlin drawing competition at the age of 6 years. So it is more of comprehension and interpretation issue in the childhood.
 Photo 3.
To my surprise, after several weeks passed, Pari once again tried to draw this camel toy. See Photo 3., he has improved quite significantly, but he is still struggling hard to compose various three dimensional components of the camel toy. The legs of camel have thickness unlike the first drawing. It is obvious that he has been able to comprehend and interpret the visual perception in a much better way. It is well known that our comprehension is much better when we have repeated experience of the thing. Don't we say that the remedy on love at first sight is second sight!
My mind confronts a question;
do children perceive toys and computer games
the same way as their designers presume?
Pari's testimony says that they don't!
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