Friends,

A team of faculty designers working with psychologists
at the National eTherapy Centre and team of design 
students recently created a suite of online therapeutic games 
designed to help autistic children develop independent life skills. 

We've had the web site up and running successfully for a while 
now. It's been working well in Australia, and now we're sharing 
it with the rest of the world. 

Normally, I wouldn't send a press release to academic colleagues,
but this release tells the story and gives you the URLs.

For me, this is a terrific example of design research -- and a great
example of interdisciplinary research. The design group in our
faculty worked with psychologists at the National eTherapy Centre
in the Faculty of Life and Social Sciences to do something good
for people based on empirical research and careful testing. This 
is also a perfect example of what Harold Nelson and Erik Stolterman
mean when they speak of "design as being in service."

You can play the game for yourself by going to Whizkid Gamesat:

http://www.whizkidgames.com/

For more information a video presentation is available at:

https://www.stateofdesign.com.au/finalists/Premiers-Design-Awards/page-2010-Winners/whizkid-games-1279768044

If you play the games -- and I have -- remember that these games
are therapeutic. If you can play this game through the eyes of an
autistic child, you'll find that they open a new world to you. We
can't
really see the games as autistic children see them, but the designers
and psychologists that created this game used the power of imagination

sharpened by research to visit the world as they experience it, and
came
back with a set of games to help autistic children live better in the
world
that we navigate so easily.

Please share these games with those who may find them of value.

Best regards,

Ken

Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS
Dean, Faculty of Design
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia

--

WhizKid Games

A suite of online therapeutic games is now available to help children
with autism develop independent life skills. Swinburne University
Faculty of Design and the National eTherapy Centre developed Whizkid
Games to address the lack of ‘early intervention’ resources
available for autistic children.

“E-health is a global issue to which design can contribute viable
cost effective resource alternatives,” said lecturer and lead designer
James Marshall. “Whizkid Games illustrates how universities and design
research can develop new job opportunities and provide innovative
solutions to global concerns.”
 
Project co-creator Prof. David Austin, a psychologist with the National
eTherapy Centre and Swinburne Autism Bio-Research Initiative (SABRI),
said he became passionately interested in autism when his son Joel, 7,
was diagnosed as autistic.

His research found that conventional teaching methods work for mildly
autistic children but fail in moderate to severe cases. Conventional
methods include reading, verbal instruction and praise.

“These formats don’t resonate with autistic children, because of
reliance on verbal cues and instruction,” said Prof. Austin. “These
kids are not good at sitting patiently and listening to instruction, and
they’re not motivated by the same things as other kids.” 

Prof. Austin worked with Marshall and 80 digital media design students
to develop Whizkid Games in cohesion with autistic children’s natural
affinity for computers.

Design students visited Bulleen Heights Autism School to speak with
teachers and to observe the activities that autistic children struggle
with everyday. Games like ‘Ron Gets Dressed’ and ‘Rufus Goes to
School’ address specific requirements by generating intuitive game
play which translates into everyday life skills.

Design student Jonathan Miller noted the challenges of the project.
“Symbolic rewards, like points for completing game milestones, are
meaningless to an autistic child. Stimulating rewards like music or a
dancing character are more meaningful - but human faces can be
intimidating. It’s wickedly complex.”

Developed in the short time frame of only 16 weeks, the project
required over 25,000 hours of research and development, time rarely
possible in the commercial sector with vast amounts of experimentation.

“Whizkid Games solves a serious problem in a light-hearted playful
way,” says Swinburne Design Dean, Ken Friedman. “This is serious
play, and it promises to enlarge the community by integrating autistic
children and their families into the flow of social life.”

Since the launch of Whizkid Games in December 2009, the resource has
been an instant hit with the community of autistic children. The
National eTherapy Centre has enjoyed a 600 per cent increase in web
traffic.

The games resource has won several prestigious design awards, including
the Premier’s Design Award celebrating exemplary design initiatives
from Victoria, Australia.
Whizkid Games is available at:
http://www.whizkidgames.com/
For more information, a video presentation is available at:
https://www.stateofdesign.com.au/finalists/Premiers-Design-Awards/page-2010-Winners/whizkid-games-1279768044