GiggleBat: enhancing playing and outdoor culture in Australian children

This paper reports on an ongoing design-based research project aiming to improve the physical and social development of children between the ages of 3--5 with tangible interactive sport based play. The project pursues design, evaluation and implementation of an interactive sports toy: GiggleBat that merges benefits of co-design, HCI and user-centred design (assisted by Arduino sensor technology and 3D Prototyping), together with current Australian playing and sporting culture. The final add-on product serves from established rules and adds value to games of cricket, and potentially tennis and golf by enhancing prompting, information and feedback. We report on our design experience of GiggleBat and evaluation results from a series of focus groups with parents and an observation session with children. We conclude with a future road map for the product.