Storytelling Before or After Prototyping with a Toolkit for Designing Classroom Robots

Storytelling is an effective approach that is used in interaction design to help align users’ needs throughout the design process. In this paper, we utilize a storytelling approach with hands-on design toolkit activities to investigate how the experimental order effect can have an impact on the overall outcomes. In particular, we focus on a robotic design toolkit that aims to involve children in the process of designing assistant classroom robotic artifacts. We report the findings of a study conducted with 28 children that designed their own classroom robotic assistance using the toolkit before and after storytelling. We conclude the paper with discussion on the order effect and design findings. This paper aims to contribute to the literature with insights on how to implement storytelling along with a prototyping toolkit; approaches that are highly valued in interaction design research and practice recently.