Portfolio: Christoph Leitner - Media and Interaction Designer

Interactive Research Terminal for Kids

Title: Interactive Research Terminal for Kids
Year: 2005
Concept and Realisation: Picturetunes
(Thomas Bauböck, Josef Greimel, Christoph Leitner, Georg Liebergesell, Alexander Schützinger)
Tasks:

Project Koordination: Christoph Leitner
Usability Research: Christoph Leitner, Georg Liebergesell
Screendesign: Christoph Leitner, Georg Liebergesell
Software Implementation: Josef Greimel, Alexander Schützinger
Database Implementation: Thomas Bauböck

Description: A project of the virtual company Picturetunes. We designed a terminal for the Vivarum (a water experience world) where kids can study insects and microorganisms that live in water. Two microscopes with video cameras are the source for a video stream, which the kids can experiment with. For instance they can draw into the video and print the picture or send it per e-mail. They can also compare the organism they examine step by step with the organisms in a database to find out what organism it is, how it differs from other organisms and what function it has in the life cycle.
Related Project: Virtual Company "Picturetunes"

Usability-Research

We conducted tests on the targetgroup. Therefore we used paper prototypes to define the interaction at the beginning and switched to functional prototypes on the computer later.

Prototype Testing

Screendesign

The Screendesign should be clean but also attractive to kids. I was inspired by the formal aesthetics of comics.

The Hardware The terminal

We used two microscopes with digital video cameras, a small PC with a touchpannel, a printer and a beamer. The PC and the touchpannel were mounted in a locked case.