Light It Up: Using Paper Circuitry To Enhance Low-Fidelity Paper Prototypes For Children

Paper prototyping is an important tool for designing and testing early technologies during development. However, children have different relationships with technology and thus one cannot expect children to assess paper prototypes with the same mental model as adults. In this paper, we examine the effect of incorporating paper circuitry into low-fidelity paper prototypes, in order to add a level of interactivity that is not present in traditional paper prototypes. We conducted a study with 20 children ages 3 to 10 years old where participants used a cardboard prototype of a voice-controlled rocket on a pretend play mission to Mars. Children chose between buttons that lit up when pressed using paper circuitry, and buttons that did not light up, and explained their selections to the researchers. Our results show that children indeed preferred buttons augmented with paper circuitry, demonstrating more attention for and increased believability in the function of these buttons as well as the overall system. These findings show how designers can use paper circuitry to more effectively engage children while play-testing their paper prototypes.