March 2022

Category

Physical Computing, Product, Prototype, Multimodal User Interface Design

Authors

Juan Camilo Alzate Pena, Alberto Guerra, Yllka Shehu, Chinmay Modi

Role activity

Concept & Ideation, Research & Analysis, Product & Prototype Design, Active Programming Learner

Eve is a storytelling voice-powered device with a drawing screen that enhances creativity and imagination of five-year-old kids or older. The kid uses it to draw a story based on drawing categories, speak about them or describe them, and listen to the final story told by the voice assistant.

Exemplary Product

Features

Visual Brand

Prototype 

/Interface & Interaction Modality

Eve is a Raspberry Pi and P5js-based device that works through the voice command. The device will react when the kid says “Hello”. The Eve board consists of a drawing screen which lies in the middle, a play button, and four coloured buttons. The buttons represent the following drawing categories: the main character in red, the second character in orange, the setting in yellow, and the item in blue. At the beginning the voice assistant greets the kid and then guides him/her throughout the storytelling journey.

Before drawing, the kid has to first choose a drawing category by pressing a button. After each drawing, the kid and the voice assistant have a conversation about it. In the end, based on the explanations of the kid, by pressing the play button the kid can listen to the whole story generated by the voice assistant.

/User Experience

From the aspect of functions Eve is a simplistic interactive device as it has three main features: choosing categories, drawing, and speaking. The voice assistant instructs the kid step by step, and the latter one can always ask questions in case of any difficulties or confusion. The drawing activity immerses the kid in new worlds of creativity and imaginative play, and the conversation between the kid and the voice assistant makes the storytelling journey enjoyable.

/Research & Development Context

The main idea of the project was to design a voice assistant to be able to help children at home in developing cognitive skills and keep them engaged in the interaction. Different from the prototype, the original Eve except the drawing screen and play button, it has four color pits on the top part, and four color tokens. The tokens are used for the drawing categories and are placed by the kid in the pits on the board. Firstly, we planned on testing the prototype with five-year-old kids and observing how they interact with the voice assistant. Based on the findings, we then would work on the conversational design, improve the technical and aesthetic aspects, so as to finally develop a product that clicks with the end user - the kids.