Children's mobile screen use: an intervening loyalty campaign

Abstract

Nowadays, growing up is quite different from what it was before. Around the globe the larger part of children engage in inordinate time looking at screens (Bucksch et al., 2016). The smartphone enables children to have more screen time, leading to negative consequences. Nevertheless, children still prefer this type of entertainment due to the entertainment values they get from the use.
This thesis examines how a loyalty campaign can intervene with a negative consequence of mobile screen use while utilizing the positive entertainment elements amongst children aged from six till twelve years.

Fourteen problems of smartphone usage accompanied with their consequences are found by literature research. These problems are presented to parents to gauge their opinion on this objective data, forming a first design goal: “Design a playful loyalty campaign that stimulate the engagement of children in active play by utilizing the entertainment values of a smartphone, to spark ones creativity.” Interviews with children accompanied with their parents examines more details on the first design goal. What boundaries need to be set with regard to the context? Which entertainment values of digital play are important to children? What is the influence of the touchscreens’ low threshold usage on active play? And finally; What is the influence on a child’s creativity? As a conclusion to this research, a new design goal is formulated: “The tactilization and experience of digital entertainment. In order to bring a connection between digital and ‘real world’ concepts and make them accessible to children.” The following criteria to this goal form the basis of evaluation for the concepts:
The concept should:
- educate on the subject of food
- be able to be played alone.
- support playing together.
- contain a part of simulation during the play.
- involve the exploration and discover of new elements.
- involve experimentation without social consequences.
- create play which is mostly focussed on a central tangible/touchable object integrated with digital entertainment.
- be able to be played during daytime.
- does not involve any online contact with strangers
- let children experience an unknown real world phenomena.
- not be able to be played without a physically present object.
- can be played without the use of a mobile device.
- has a high level of collect-ability.
- is valuable when only a few gifts are received by the user.
- involves creating something.

The result, called “Body Builders”, is a concept in which children learn about nutrients that come from food. 20 3D characters standing for nutrients can be collected. Together with the application, these characters will come alive and the child will experience what these, previously unknown nutrients, do to your body. User test shows, that the concept brings an intertwined combination between digital gaming and tangible play. In contrast to current mobile screen use, this concept balances between real and digital play by utilizing the play experiences children like.