Preschool children's vocabulary mainly develops verbal through interaction. Therefore, the technology-enhanced storytelling (TES) activity Jeffy's Journey is developed to support parent–child interaction and vocabulary in preschool children. TES entails shared verbal storytelling supported by a story structure and real-time visual, auditory and textual prompts on a tablet computer. In this exploratory study, we investigated how TES influenced parent–child interaction and vocabulary. An experimental pretest-intervention-posttest design was followed with 44 3-year-old children and their parents in the experimental group and 27 peers in the control group. Results revealed that TES stimulated active child involvement and generated parent–child interaction, yet a great variety in TES characteristics both in time spent and usage of prompts was found among participants. Dyads that spent more time on story phases showed more and higher quality parent–child interaction. The usage of prompts was associated with improved parent–child interaction quality. Finally, an effect of TES was evidenced on children's productive vocabulary knowledge. To conclude, this study demonstrates that TES can be considered as a promising context for fostering parent–child interaction and children's vocabulary development.
In recent years, the use of visualizations or infographics in the news has become increasingly popular. We know, however, surprisingly little about how news consumers use and appreciate news visualizations. We apply a mixed-method approach to answer these two questions. First, we conduct an eye-tracking study that measures use, by means of direct attention to visualizations on three different news platforms (print newspaper, e-newspaper on tablet, and news website). Second, we conduct focus groups and a survey among readers of three news media to study the extent to which news consumers actually value the inclusion of visualizations in the news. Our results show that news consumers do indeed read news visualizations, regardless of the platform on which the visual is published. We also find that visualizations are appreciated, but only if they are coherently integrated into a news story and thus fulfill a function that can be easily understood. With this study, we provide the first comprehensive picture of the usefulness of information visualizations in the news, and contribute to a growing literature on alternative ways of storytelling in journalism today.
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Within the film and theater world, special effects make-up is used to adapt the appearance of actors for visual storytelling. Currently the creation of special effects makeup is a time-consuming process which creates a lot of waste that doesn’t fit in with the goals of a sustainable industry. Combine with the trend of the digitization of the movie and theater industry which require faster and more iterative workflows, the current ways of creating special effects makeup requires changing. Within this project we would like to explore if the traditional way of working can be converted to a digital production process. Our research consists of three parts. Firstly, we would like to explore if a mobile face scanning rig can be used to create digital copies of actors, and such eliminate the need to creates molds. Secondly, we would like to see if digital sculpting can replace the traditional methods of sculpting molds, casts and prosthetics. Here we would like to compare both methods in terms of creativity and time consumption. The third part of our project will be to explore the use of 3D printing for the creation of molds and prosthetics.
We had been involved in the redesign of the 4 Period Rooms of the Marquise Palace, also called the Palace of Secrets, in Bergen op Zoom. This design was based on the biography of a historical figure: Marie Anne van Arenberg, whose dramatic life was marked by secrets. Each of the 4 rooms represents a turning moment in Marie Anne’s story: the official marriage, the secret marriage and the betrayal, the dilemma and choice, with, in a final room, the epilogue. These different episodes are reflected in the way the rooms are furnished: the ballroom, the bedroom, the dining room. The Secret Marquise as design and exhibition has brought more visitors to the museum. As designers and researchers, however, we were interested in understanding more about this success, and, in particular, in understanding the visitors experience, both emotionally and sensorially at different moments/situations during the story-driven experience.In the fall of 2021, the visitors’ lived experience was evaluated using different approaches: a quantitative approach using biometric measurements to register people’s emotions during their visit, and a qualitative one consisting of a combination of observations, visual imagery, and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).Qualitatively, our aim was to understand how respondents made sense of Marie Anne’s story in the way in which this was presented throughout the exhibition. We specifically looked at the personal context and frame of reference (e.g., previous experiences, connection to the visitor’s own life story, associations with other stories from other sources). In the design of the rooms, we used a combination of digital/interactive elements (such as a talking portrait, an interactive dinner table, an interactive family painting), and traditional physical objects (some 17th century original objects, some reproductions from that time). The second focal point of the study is to understand how these different elements lead the visitors experience.
Retailinnovatie in Rotterdam onderzoekt de innovatiekansen van bestaande MKB‐retail-ondernemingen met een fysieke vestiging in de Rotterdamse binnenstad. Daarnaast wordt de ontwikkeling van de binnenstad als relevante betekenisvolle context voor MKB‐retailers in Rotterdam onderzocht. Samen met MKB’ers en andere stakeholders worden nieuwe retailconcepten en diensten ontworpen, gedemonstreerd en getest. Centraal staat de vraag: Welke nieuwe concepten, diensten en toepassingen zijn op korte en middellange termijn nodig ter bevordering van innovatievermogen, concurrentiekracht en toekomstbestendigheid van bestaande MKB-retailondernemingen met een fysieke vestiging in de Rotterdamse binnenstad en hoe kan de ontwikkeling van het binnenstedelijke winkelgebied hieraan een bijdrage leveren? Belangrijkste doelstelling van dit project is versterking van de MKB‐retailers in de Rotterdamse binnenstad door ze te ondersteunen in het benutten van hun innovatiekansen. In vergelijking met grootwinkel-bedrijven hebben MKB‐ retailers onvoldoende middelen en spankracht om de actuele innovatie-opgave voortvarend op te pakken. Bovendien staat de positie van MKB‐retailers in de binnensteden onder druk door de zogenaamde filialisering van winkelketens. Innovatie dient nog een breder doel. Kleine retailers zijn medeverantwoordelijk voor het imago en de belevingskwaliteit van de Rotterdamse binnenstad. Ze geven samen met grootwinkel-bedrijven, horeca-ondernemingen en cultuur kleur aan de binnenstad. Vanuit Hogeschool Rotterdam wordt dit project gedragen door Kenniscentrum Creating 010, Willem de Kooning Academie, Instituut voor Communicatie, Media en Informatietechnologie en de opleiding Small Business & Retail Management. Een belangrijk deel van het onderzoeks‐ en ontwerpwerk wordt verricht door studenten binnen het curriculum van genoemde opleidingen. Ze worden daarbij gecoached door docentonderzoekers en lectoren en ze werken intensief samen met de consortiumpartners: zeven MKB-retailondernemers uit de Rotterdamse binnenstad en vier MKB’ers uit de creatieve zakelijke dienstverlening met bijzondere expertise op hert gebied van retailinnovatie. Het consortium wordt gecompleteerd door twee grootwinkelbedrijven, een vastgoedexploitant uit de Rotterdamse binnenstad, een ondernemersorganisatie en Stadsontwikkeling Rotterdam. Creating 010 draagt de wetenschappelijke verantwoordelijkheid voor het onderzoek.
