This paper develops a set of design strategies for promoting young children’s physical activity. These strategies are developed by taking the design perspective of Playscapes as a starting point. Playscapes suggests that three play qualities are key in promoting young children’s physical activity: free, bodily, and dispersed play. We present two field studies in a pediatric oncology center, in which we observed how these play qualities were reflected in children’s interactions with two Playscape designs: Stickz, a collection of branch-shaped objects, were placed in a semi-public waiting area; Fizzy, a self-propelled robotic ball, was introduced to patient rooms. Free play was analyzed according to the diversity of play activities, bodily play according to the diversity and exertion level of bodily movements, and dispersed play according to the floor area covered. Based on the findings, we discuss how Fizzy and Stickz contributed to each play quality, and derive a set of design strategies that can be applied in different contexts to stimulate young children’s physical activity. With these strategies, Playscapes offers a concrete alternative to existing approaches, supporting designers in directing interactions towards physical activity while leaving room for children’s unstructured and spontaneous play.@en

Young children often lack opportunities to play in a physically active way. This is particularly the case for children with cancer and other chronic diseases, who regularly undergo periods of hospitalization. Promoting their physical activity and play can contribute to their health, wellbeing, and development. This thesis develops ‘Playscapes’ – a design perspective that emphasizes the unstructured and spontaneous nature of young children’s physical activity. Playscapes encourages designers to enable such physical activity through the design of open-ended and ambiguous playthings. By designing such playthings for children with cancer, this thesis contributes to turning hospital environments, such as patient rooms and waiting areas, into potential ‘landscapes for physical activity and play’. @en

In early childhood, children develop motor skills that form the basis of their future physical activities. This development can stagnate when children face long-term hospitalization due to injury or disease. Most interventions to facilitate their physical development are built on exercise and structured play, and have ignored the value of spontaneous and unstructured play. For this reason, we introduce 'Playscapes' as a design perspective on young children's physical play. Playscapes is inspired by outdoor play, and accounts for three qualities: bodily play, dispersed play and free play. These qualities can help interaction designers to generate designs that help children playfully develop physical competence. The design perspective is used for developing two design interventions specifically for children with cancer. To point out the merits of Playscapes, the design interventions are compared with two exercise-based interventions. Finally, challenges and future steps are discussed for further developing Playscapes.

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