A Board-Game for Co-Designing Smart Nature Environments in Workshops with Children

In recent years, the Human Computer Interaction community has increasingly engaged children in the design process of technology for them as co-designers, and recently as protagonists in co-design. It has also recognised the need of “bringing children back to nature”. This paper combines both lines of research, giving children the role of protagonist co-designers of smart nature ecosystems. In order to engage children as co-designers, the research reported in this paper has employed a playful solution: a board game for children for co-designing smart interactive objects for outdoors nature ecosystems. This paper illustrates the genesis and recent evolution of the board-game in two workshops with children of different ages and gender. Its conclusions draw lessons for involving children as protagonist co-designers of smart nature ecosystems.