by: Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

analysis
Background
Young children learn how to recognize and identify things such as numbers and letters at school.
What they don’t learn from their teachers is how to recognize and properly express emotions. This
is something they are expected to learn at home, but if a young child has been abused or lives in a
household where the only emotions they’re exposed to are negative, they don’t have the opportunity
to gain emotional intelligence and build emotional literacy. Young children need to be taught how to
properly recognize and express their emotions to fully realize their potential and to avoid unneces-
sary conflict in school and social settings.

EEMIO, which stands for Enabling Emotional Instruction & Observation, is a physical toy coupled
with a web site that provides children with activities and lessons that help them build their emo-
tional intelligence or EQ by developing emotional vocabulary, also known as “feeling words” as well
as coping mechanisms for emotional situations. A child’s inability to express or recognize emotions
can lead to behavioral problems which extend to the classroom and ultimately affect their learn-
ing experience. By understanding and learning to identify different types of emotions, children can
apply methods of self-regulation.

It can be difficult for adults such as social workers to get children to discuss their feelings if they
try to sit down and talk about it. Allowing young children to interact with a toy and web site pro-
vides a level of safety and familiarity that encourages them to open up more. This approach allows
adults to expand on topics the child might have touched upon during their interactions with the toy.

According to the Emotional Literacy Campaign at www.feel.org “ ‘Emotional Literacy’ is the ability
to recognize, understand and appropriately express our emotions.”

“If teachers and other significant adults do not encourage them to express their emotions,
then children of both sexes can be at risk for emotional, behavioral, academic, and social
problems that can be carried into adulthood. Helping children to express themselves verbally
and in writing plays a key role in nurturing resiliency in preschool and throughout academic
life.” (Novick, R. 2002)

Using a combination of therapy techniques, an interactive toy and a web site, EEMIO will teach
young children how to identify feelings and cope with negative emotions, in a fun, hands-on way,
improving their emotional intelligence and helping them deal with social conflict at school and at
home.

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

analysis

Primary Target Audience

Demographic Characteristics
• Ages 5-7
• Elementary school
• Have played with toys
• Enjoy role playing
• Have played video games before (infrequent to frequent game play)
• Have behavioral or physical issues

Cognitive Characteristics
• Low prior knowledge of emotional intelligence
• Varying levels of social and communication skills
• Starting to develop empathy towards others

All children who interact with EEMIO are expected to be supervised by adults, including social work
professionals, counselors, teachers and parents. EEMIO attempts to open up dialog with children
who might be closed off to adults but feel more comfortable talking with or through EEMIO. Some of
these children will be living in circumstances that put them under emotional stress, so it is especially
important that they learn to express their feelings. Studies have shown that in modern society, “As chil-
dren grow ever smarter in IQ, their emotional intelligence is on the decline.” (Goleman, D. 2005) Thus
children with and without problems will be able to benefit from EEMIO.

Secondary Target Audience

• Social Worker
• Guidance Counselor
EEMIO’s Objectives • Special Education Teacher
• Day Care Center
• Recognize that everyone has emotions • Early Childhood Education (Pre K-1)
• Understand and interpret “feeling words” in order to communicate vocally or in written words. • Parents
• Differentiate between emotions through visual and/or auditory means.
• Understand that events influence emotion.
• Classify hypothetical events that would elicit a specific emotion.
• Implement strategies for behavioral modification and anger management
• Execute procedural strategies to assist in problem solving.
• Comprehend that actions can influence other people’s emotional states.

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

 design
The Idea
EEMIO is a dual experience with tight integration between the physical toy and the web site. Although it is not out of the ordinary Although activities may vary over time, the overall inter-
for toys to be coupled with other sorts of activities and mediums, most of the time these experiences are disjointed. EEMIO enables action flow stays consistent throughout. This iterative
synchronicity through constant communication between the toy and the computer program. process takes the learner through the stages of problem
solving.
Emotion is a topic and skill that must be externalized and communicated to others. EEMIO enables selected members of the learner’s
community to be involved both inside and outside of the play experience. As a community, teachers, counselors,and parents, can take Interactions are broken up into 7 stages:
an active role in the emotional growth of their children. Through the use of EEMIO, they have access to “The Parent’s Corner” which
gives them important information regarding emotional literacy, and allows them to have direct access to various assessment tools 1. Playing with EEMIO: During this period the learner
measuring growth in the child. plays with the EEMIO toy through participating in
various activities.
The above adult facilitators, will also take major
roles in the desktop game activities provided by 2. Defining the problem: During play, EEMIO transition
the EEMIO experience. Embedded as non-playing through various emotions. The toy communicates
characters they will be represented in the child’s the emotion in the form of narrative storytelling,
game play activities, and serve as an extension of creating a backstory that will give meaning to the
their support. This functionality will be described subsequent activities.
in more detail under the desktop game character
roles section of this document. The chart on the 3. Confronting the problem: EEMIO directs
left demonstrates the organizational framework of the learner to go to the computer and help
the EEMIO experience. find a way for it to feel better. Supplied with the
narrative backstory the learner explores the EEMIO desktop game and participates in various problem solving activities.

4. Receiving Tool: As the learner explores the virtual environment, they are met by various non-playing characters, such as the
Teacher/School Social Worker. This virtual character teaches the learner various techniques for developing emotional coping
strategies that may help EEMIO.

5. Practicing to use the tool: Throughout the game, learners will be confronted with activities that allow them to use and share
tools.

6. Analyzing effectiveness: The learner’s effective, or ineffective use of the tools is directly correlated to EEMIO’s emotional meter
bar on the bottom of the screen.

7. Resolving the problem: Once the meter reaches 100% capacity, EEMIO is once again happy, and grateful.

8. Gain a Reward: After each mission, a reward is granted to the learner in the form of a newly unlocked activity in the physical toy,
or a ribbon or badge in the online game.

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

design
EEMIO’s Toy Design
Form: EEMIO is an androgenous toy, suitable for both male
and female children. Due to the possibility of multiple users
in a therapy environment, the toy should be constructed with
durable material that is easily removable and washable.
EEMIO is shaped like a tetrahedron, which allows the repre-
sentation of four separate emotions in one toy. This creates
an affordance for exploratory interaction, allowing children to
quickly move from one emotion to another.
Another reason for the use of a tetrahedron is the shapes’
unique capability to rest on all sides. This makes it possible
to always have one active state on the toy depending on its
orientation. The toy stands at 10 inches high, and 7 inches
wide making EEMIO large enough to be “huggable”, and also
capable of housing; batteries, microprocessor, sensors. 4
LED buttons, servo, and a durable casing that holds all the
circuitry intact.
The final consideration was EEMIO’s ability to be an extension
of the child’s voice. Loren Britez, a social worker and child
advocate of a West New York, NJ public school states that,
“many times during therapy sessions, children find it difficult
to be vocal. When this happens I [Social Worker’s] refer them
to inanimate objects to help scaffold their communication.”
(Britez, 2009)
Fig. 1: EEMIO prototype created with clay. Since EEMIO is comprised of different visual emotional
representations, the learner could use the EEMIO’s physical
form as alternate method of communicating with a therapist.
Toy Platform When asked how they are feeling, they could simply flip EEMIO
to the emotion that best describes their present state.
EEMIO, is an electronic plush toy which incorporates internal sensors which include, a gyroscope and accelerometer that detect the
toy’s orientation at all times. The toy is also WiFi enabled, allowing it to sync through a LAN connection, and pass data back and Function: EEMIO expresses itself through the use of audi-
forth. The data is then stored in a solid state Flash Drive that is also embedded inside the toy. tory feedback and cueing dialog, that is triggered via motion
sensitivity, or immediately following an action taken by the
All interaction is programed in the toy’s internal micro-controller. Actions are parsed through EEMIO’s program, and appropriate user. This feedback is accompanied by visual (blinking LED
feedback is dispatched via embedded speakers, visual LEDs, and haptic servo. buttons) and haptic responses (toy vibrates).
The integration of lights (LED) embedded in the buttons, which
are located on the each of the 4 ends of the tetrahedron, serves
the dual purpose of signalling the user to take an action, and
visually interpreting the active emotion through the use of color.
Happy White
Sad Blue
Angry Red
Scared Yellow
Manner of Behavior: EEMIO is a social robot that uses dialog
as a source for creating contextual mappings and narratives
resulting in “meaningful” use of the content being learned.
EEMIO has three modes that are directly dependent on its cur-
rent emotional state, and whether the learner is actively logged
into EEMIO’s desktop software activities.
1. Playful EEMIO: When EEMIO is happy he asks the learner
to participate in several interactive activities such as,
sing-a-longs, story time (choose your own adventure), and
general play. During this time EEMIO actively asks the
learner to talk about their feeling, through the use of open
ended questioning.
2. Distressed EEMIO: In this mode EEMIO demonstrates the
initial steps of problem solving, by supplying the learner
with information about an unfortunate event that has
caused EEMIO to feel sad, scared or angry. EEMIO then
invites the learner to help resolve the issue through the use
of the desktop game environment.
3. Software Synched (Feedback & Encouraging) EEMIO: Once
the learner has launched the desktop application, both
the EEMIO toy and the computer software wirelessly sense
each other, and automatically sync. During the learner’s
interaction with the game, the EEMIO toy offers “over the
shoulder” feedback and any needed scaffolding.
Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer
design
Toy Feedback Inactivity Reminder: Some activities take advantage of EEMIO’s embedded circuit- Story time (Choose your own adventure):
Through the use of an accelerometer, and an internal timer ry, which enables EEMIO to be aware of the active emotional EEMIO has the ability to transmit interactive stories to the
Physical Orientation: programed into EEMIO’s software, the toy will be able to ac- state. In the following example the learner is able to control learner. These stories require the learner to chose their own
If at anytime EEMIO’s orientation changes to one of the four curately estimate drops in physical engagement. In the event the music by simply rotating the EEMIO toy to any emotion. adventure based on how they believe a specific event would
possible states (happy, sad, angry, scared), then the leaner that EEMIO detects that it has not been interacted with for make the character feel. There are no wrong answers in this
will be supplied with an audio cue that supports the toy’s more than thirty seconds, the toy dispatches audio reflective “If you’re Happy and you know it, clap your hands.” activity, only consequences based on their decisions.
active state. of the toy’s emotional state to maintain engagement. “If you’re Happy and you know it, clap your hands.”
“If you’re Happy and you know it, and you really want to [EEMIO says]
Audio Feedback Visual Feedback Interactive Toy Based Activities show it” It’s story time! When you hear [Ding!] flip me over to
Happy laughter + “I’m happy!” blinking LED above “If you’re Happy and you know it, clap your hands” the emotion that describes how the character may be
happy face As the learner physically interacts with the EEMIO toy, they feeling at that moment.
are presented with various activities. Each of the activities [Learner flips EEMIO over to the angry side]
Sad whimper + “I’m Sad” blinking LED above
happy face support active participation through problem solving, kines- [EEMIO continues reading]
thetic reasoning, or audio cueing. “If you’re Angry and you know it, stomp your feet,” ”…then Johnny’s sister threw his goldfish down the
Angry growl + “I’m angry!” blinking LED above
happy face
“If you’re Angry and you know it, stomp your feet,” toilet and flushed it!” [Sound *Ding!]
Sing-a-long: “If you’re Angry and you know it, and you really want to
Scared gasp + “I’m scared” blinking LED above
EEMIO takes the act of singing and adds an additional level show it” [Learner flips EEMIO over to the angry side and presses
happy face
of interaction which is controlled by the learner. “If you’re Angry and you know it, stomp your feet.” the flashing button]
The songs are short, easy to memorize, age appropriate and
have learning goals attached to them. [Learner flips EEMIO over to the sad side] [EEMIO continues reading]

“How do you feel?”, is a song that is intended to encour- “If you’re Sad and you know it, cry a tear, boo hoo.” ”Johnny was so angry with his sister, and yelled!”
age the learner to vocally state how they feel. After EEMIO “If you’re Sad and you know it, cry a tear, boo hoo.”
instructs the learner on the singing task, EEMIO invites the “If you’re Sad and you know it, and you really want to Open Ended Questioning:
learner to sing-a-long. show it” Open-ended question are used to encourage a full, meaning-
“If you’re Sad and you know it, cry a tear, boo hoo.” ful answer using the learner’s own knowledge. Open-ended
How do you feel? questions typically begin with words such as “Why” and
How do you feel? [Learner flips EEMIO over to the scared side] “How”, or phrases such as “Tell me about...”. Bellow are
Are you glad, some examples of questions that EEMIO might ask the
are you sad? If you’re scared and you know it Give a shiver. Brrrr learner.
Are you really really mad? If you’re scared and you know it, give a shiver. Brrrr
Just stand right up and yell, If you’re scared and you know it and you really want to • “Have you ever felt scared?”
[Leaners Audio Cue] show it • “I sometimes get scared when I hear thunder. What
I’m _________! If you’re scared and you know it, give a shiver. Brrrr makes you scared?”
• “Hello! How do you feel today!?”
[EEMIO: pauses for a second and states it current
emotional active state]

Fig 2: The Activity Zone depicts the buffer in which emotions

are activated via the gyroscope sensor data.

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

design
Desktop Application Sitemap

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

design
Desktop Application Wireframes

Template 1:
1. Game play Screen Template 2:
2. Cutscenes 1. Map

Template 3: Template 4:
1. Customize Modal Dialog Box
2. Awards 1. Alerts
2. Rewards

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

design
EEMIO Game Platform

When EEMIO is purchased, the toy comes packaged with a CD that contains the EEMIO Desktop Game environment. This
Java based application, is cross-platform, and requires an internet connection to retrieve assets that sit on an off site
server. Hosted media is on off site servers, allowing remote access, which also allows EEMIO to have fresh content and
activities to share with the learner, enabling it to stay fresh and avoid repetition.

Game Genre

The EEMIO game borrows from the following genres and game-play types:
• Computer simulation games
• Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG)

Game Mechanics

Emotional Meter Bar

The emotional meter is a visual representation of current emotional state of the EEMIO toy. The range of the meter
spans from EEMIO’s current negative emotion (sad, scared, angry), which is dependant on the active mission, to EE-
MIO’s happy emotional state.

There are several way for the learner to increase the positive emotion of the meter:
• Solving the mission fills up EEMIO’s emotion 100%
• Doing a good deed, such as giving another learner a tool from your collection.
• Communicating your problem with other learners, or non-playing characters, such as teachers, family, and social
workers.

The consequence of a low meter reading is demonstrated by an increasing amount of sudden outbursts by the physi-
cal toy. These outburst are used as a method of signaling the learner to use “Tools” to help bring up stabilize EEMIO’s
meter reading.

Fig 3: The learner and EEMIO’s home.

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

design
Game Mechanics (continued)

Map: The map enables the learner to travel between various locations, such as the school, the playground and their home. Tools: As the learner explores the virtual world, they will meet several non-playing characters that will teach the learner
The learner is encouraged by non-playing characters to explore all the different locations, while trying to complete their skills than can help alleviate negative emotions. These tools can be used to increase EEMIO’s emotional meter reading,
mission. and can also be shared with newcomers in the virtual system that may not have the appropriate tools to help their own
EEMIO dilemma.

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

design
Game Mechanics (continued)

Customize: As a newcomer, the learner is supplied with a limited selection of items to customize thier avatar, their EEMIO, Badges: Similar to the way the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts reward their members, EEMIO uses a ribbon and badge system
their individual family members, or their home. Each section contains an accordion menu that helps categorize and to help motivate the learner to actively look for scenarios that require the use of “Tools”. These incentives also encourage
decrease the overall cognitive load of making selections in each section. exploration of the system. You can find more information on both Badges and Ribbon in the Incentive section of this paper.

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

design
Game Mechanics (continued)

Share:
The EEMIO experience creates a conducive, safe, nonthreatening environment for
communication to occur. The main goal however is for the dialog to effectively
transfer outside of the virtual environment and into the learner “real life” environ-
ment. To promote this, the virtual representation of learner’s family, teacher, and
social workers have the option of adding direct communication alternatives, such
as their e-mail or twitter account. If the learner feels as though they would like to
share dialog, they can do so in the form of an Emotional E-Card.

Keeping in mind the target audience, most of which can not fully express them-
selves through text, we where faced with the challenge of creating a accessible
method for productive communication to occur. The following screens explain the
interaction process that the learner, must go through.

Step 1: The learner selects the pre-populated person(s) that they would like to send Step 2: The learner selects a setting for the message to be situated, to provide
a message too. The faces are generated by the learner’s customization settings more context for their message.

Step 3: Due to the probability that the learner cannot effectively articulate by typ- Step 4: After the learner has recorded the audio message, they are asked to Step 5: The final message is a compilation of the setting, audio recording, and
ing, the learner is instead asked to record an audio message. reflect, then select how that message made them feel. learner’s avatar which is expressing the previously selected emotion.

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

design
Learner to Learner Communication

Talk
The EEMIO Desktop Game is a multiuser environment which allows for multiple
players to play the EEMIO game concurrently. All the learners are able see each
other’s avatars on their screen in real-time. It also allows for the learners to com-
municate with each other via pre-scripted multiple choice dialog.

Keeping in mind the target audience (5-7 yr.), most of which can not fully express
themselves through text, we were faced with the challenge of creating an acces-
sible alternative for productive communication to occur. For this reason, dialog
selections are based on both the learner’s interaction and learning goals.

Step 1: The initial receiver of the talk request must agree to enter a chat session. Step 2: Once the chat session is accepted, the message appears above its respec-
tive avatar. For accessibility purposes, each message is coupled with an audio
version.

Step 3: In order to reply to the message the learner must select one of the multiple Step 4: The message is now shared with the other learner, and they can see the Step 5: This interaction loops from step 2 through 4 until a learner terminates the
pre-scripted choices. dialog. session.

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

design
Roles
Learner
The learner takes on a variety of roles while
interacting with EEMIO. Their primary role,
however is to assist EEMIO in developing skills
that will help change negative emotions to
positive ones.
During physical play the learner takes a
participatory role, and is actively engaged in
meaningful interaction guided by the EEMIO
toy.
Once the learner moves into the desktop game
environment, the learner takes on a the role
of problem solver. During this interaction
they will explore a virtual environment to gain
needed skills and experience that will help
them assist EEMIO, with his problem.
The EEMIO experience creates a conducive,
safe, nonthreatening environment for com-
munication to occur between the learners, the
EEMIO toy, and embedded non-playing charac-
ters in the game system.
The presence of other learners concurrently in
the multi-user environment offers the opportu-
nity to share and talk about emotions amongst
peers. More advanced learners are also able to
share their acquired tools with newcomers to
the system.
EEMIO Toy:
During play, EEMIO guides the learner through
various activities that incorporate the learning
goals. EEMIO’s goal in this role is to share ac-
tivities and develop a bond which can promote
empathy when EEMIO is confronted with a
problem.
During game play,the EEMIO toy dispatches
various auditory and haptic feedback as a
result of actions taken in the desktop game
environment. For example, if the learner helps
another learner, EEMIO might say, “Wow, that
was really nice of you to help him out!”
There are moment of deep distress during
game play that affect EEMIO directly. When
these moments occur in the game environment
EEMIO will vibrate and get visibly upset. Mo-
ments such as these are used as cue points for
the learner to use a tool that they have in their
“tools” section.
Social Worker/Teacher (NPC):
A major part of the learning and interaction
goal of the EEMIO game, is to learn and collect
tools (skills) that allow the learner to help
EEMIO feel better via non-playing characters
(NPCs) embedded in the virtual world.  The
tools come in the shape of emotional adjust-
ment techniques that the school social worker/
teacher “teaches” the learner. These lessons
take on a form of cut scenes.
Aside from parents, real-life social workers are
actively involved in gauging the growth and
success of the learner’s interaction with EEMIO.
Social workers have access to analytical data
which they can use to assess the learner’s
progress, and the skills that the learner is
currently using. Having this knowledge allows
the facilitator to reflect on the lessons learned,
and assist in transferring those lessons to the
real world.
Family (NPC): General NPCs:
When the EEMIO toy is initially set up by a The role of general (not family or facilitator)
facilitator, they will be asked to enter in all the non-playing characters in the EEMIO game
members of their family and extended family environment is to create opportunities for
that may be important to the child. Once the the learner to use and master their tools. By
learner logs in to their account they have the orchestrating mini problems in the learner’s
ability to interact with these members in the session they can begin to develop situational
form of hugs.  awareness of other avatars in the environment,
and are give the ability to share their skill with
As part of a formative assessment, the facili- them.
tator can get valuable data for analysis from
this, such as numbers on who the learner calls Demonstrating how each emotion could derive
on for emotional. This data could also prove from various different events, the learner is
beneficial to a therapist by giving them a bet- able to compare and contrast all the different
ter understanding the dynamics of the learner’s story lines in the game, with events that may or
home. may not have happened to them in real life.
Each of the family member’s avatars will also
include a direct method of communicating with
that family member via e-mail. This interaction
can also be found in the “Share” section.
The facilitator will input the e-mail address for
any adults the child can share with. The fa-
cilitator can also allow an avatar but withhold
the sending function so she can discuss what
is sent with the parent in person, or prevent the
child from communicating with abusive adults.
Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer
design
Incentives

Change EEMIO’s Emotional State: The EEMIO toy interaction is dependant upon its current emotional state. If the child
would like to have access to the “Playful “ mode, and EEMIO is in a presently in a “Distressed” state, then the learner
will need to launch the desktop software environment and help EEMIO become playful again.

Unlock EEMIO Toy Activity: Each time the learner successfully completes a mission in the game, a new activity is
unlocked on the EEMIO toy. This could consist of an activity such as a new story or song.

Awards: As the learner gains experience in the system, and begins their transition from newcomer to old-timer, they are
awarded ribbons and badges. Providing awards is a motivational strategy to encourage active game play using the
learning content.

• Ribbons are individual “game interaction awards” that have been given unique criteria. An example of an interac-
tion would be to start conversations with at least ten other learners for five consecutive game sessions. This type
of interaction would win the learner a “Social Superstar” ribbon.

• Badges are directly related to the learner’s mastery of each tool that they collect. Once a learner is able to consis-
tently detect emotional distress displayed by embedded NPCs and the EEMIO toy and apply the correct strategy or
tool to alleviate their distress, the learner will gain mastery of a tool. This digital rewarding technique helps keep
players engaged, and fosters community. Badges are valued by players as a new metric to prove mastery in a social
setting. (Irwin, 2009) The average learner should be able to gain several badges in their first interaction with the
game. As they become old-timers to the system, the badges are increasingly difficulty to attain.

Emotional Attachment: The EEMIO toy is consistently part of both the physical and computer-based activities. The
reason for this, is to keep the toy and game from becoming separate entities.  The EEMIO toy shares all the learner’s
experiences, which encourages a bond between the learner and toy. This bond is what creates empathy for EEMIO in the
learner, and develops intrinsic motivation to help EEMIO feel better.

New Clothes and Accessories: While exploring the desktop game, the learner may be awarded new items that they can
use to customize their avatar, their family’s avatars, EEMIO’s avatar, or their home.

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

design
Use Case Model
When Mary Plays with EEMIO... When Mrs. Kessner Plays with EEMIO...

Demographic Favorites Demographic Technology Usage

Grade Level: 1st Grade Toy: Step2 Lifestyle PartyTime Kitchen Occupation: School Social Worker Social Networks: Facebook
Age: 6 TV Show: Dora the Explorer Education: Montclair/NYU Cell Phone: Palm Pre
Parent’s Marital Status: Divorced Web site: Club Penguin Certification: MSW Web usage: 20 hours per week
Household Income: $85, 000 Pastime: Playing with dad’s iPhone Age: 29
Subject: Writing Income: $55,000
Marital Status: Single

Background: Background:

Mary is having some trouble at school because she gets frustrated and hits other children
if she doesn’t get her way. Her teachers know that she has lived in a household where she
has seen men abuse her mother. She visits the counselor’s office once a week to help her
work through her problems. Mary doesn’t always like to talk to her counselor about things
that make her feel bad.
Mrs. Kessner, 29 has a lot of kids who she sees every day at Ross Elementary School. All of
them have different problems, but many of them don’t like to talk a lot. She spends much
of her short time with the children working on ways to make them feel comfortable enough
to talk to her about the things that make them feel bad.

When Mary gets to the office, her counselor introduces her to a new toy named EEMIO. EEMIO is bright and colorful with big
buttons and Mary is excited to play. Her counselor tells Mary that EEMIO sometimes has problems and that Mary can help EEMIO
solve them by listening to EEMIO and playing on the computer.
Mary picks up EEMIO and turns him so that the sad face is showing since that’s how she feels today. Mary pushes the big button
on top and EEMIO sings a song. When the song is over EEMIO tells Mary that he’s feeling sad because he lost his dog and asks
Mary to help him feel better by using the computer.
On the computer, Mary gets to make a character and a room that match her style. She also gets to make her family. Once she’s
got everything set up, she explores the web site and gets to play games and collect tools to make EEMIO feel better and help find
his lost dog. When she completes her mission, the toy EEMIO speaks up and she gets to play with him more before it’s time to
go.
Mrs. Kessner just received new tool called EEMIO and she is excited to try it out. Before she tries it with any children, she logs
into the administrative web page and imports her client list. She automatically receives a log in and password for each one.
She makes her own avatar and customizes her online office to look similar to her real one. When kids encounter the counselor in
the web site they see a familiar place.
After she has used EEMIO and the web site for a week, Mrs. Kessner checks up on the report generated by the EEMIO web site.
She sees that Mary has collected some tools to help her with her anger issues and notes that she is still not able to get past the
game on sharing. She plans to talk to Mary about that before playing with EEMIO next time she sees her. She remembers hear-
ing Mary say something about not having anything of her own when Mary was talking to EEMIO last week.

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

theory
Pedagogical Design Cognitive Design Emotional Design

Problem Based Learning: Each activity is framed around a problem that is affecting EEMIO’s emotional state. These problems Meaningful Effects: In order to retain information, a learner Avatar and Environmental Customization: Personalizing
are in the form of a story, which helps create context around the activity. “Because stories are essential to solving complex, ev- must pay attention and process the information so that it the learner’s interaction by offering various customization
eryday and professional problems, we believe that stories should form a basis for learning how to solve those problems.” (Jonas- can be stored in long-term memory. If information is put in options, allows the learner to have a sense of ownership
sen & Hernandez-Serrano, 2002, pg. 76) the context of a story or connected to something a learner within the system.
already knows, it is easier to learn and remember. (Driscoll,
Goal-based Scenarios: In each mission, that is situated in the desktop game environment, the learner becomes an active 2005) Narrative Design
participant, by taking part in a “learning by doing” architecture. (Schank et al., 1993) This immersion requires the leaner to take
part in real-world activities. Practice Effects: Practicing or rehearsing improves reten- Plot Based Narrative: A major part of EEMIO’s game play,
tion especially when it is distributed practice. By distribut- is for the learner to perform the actions directed by the
Multimedia Learning: In both the physical and digital interfaces, there are spoken words coupled with a visual image or picture ing practices the learner associates the material with many toy. This enables the learner to advance in the game and
providing information and feedback for the learner. In order to avoid unnecessary cognitive load and the split attention effect, we different contexts rather than the one context afforded by increase the toy’s library of possible interactions. Each
provide the option for the learner to turn subtitles on or off. (Mayer, 2005) practice in a single instance. mission is comprised of a backstory that is supplied by
the EEMIO toy before each mission. The purpose of the
Considering the age of our target audience the primary delivery method is via auditory or pictorial means because many of them Friendly Voice (informal): According to Mayer, “the per- backstory is to provide dramatic context for the action
will not be able to read text. Since the learner will always be using this with an adult, the text can help the adult facilitator sonalization and voice principles are consistent with the and interaction that is about to take place in the game
review what happened and prompt the child if necessary. idea that social cues prime a conversational stance in the (Crawford, 2003). Stories are the “means [by] which hu-
learner, in which the learner sees the instructor as a conver- man beings give meaning to their experience of temporal-
Community of Practice: The desktop environment of the EEMIO experience is comprised of learners that are either newcomers or sational partner.” (Mayer, 2005 pg 277) ity and personal actions” (Polkinghorne, 1988, p. 11). By
old timers to the system (Vygotsky, 1978). Newcomers explore the environment in hopes of building up tools though experience, integrating storytelling, and using the narrative from of
which helps to increasing their EEMIO toy’s emotional level. Old-timers, who have already gained many tools through experience, Repetition: The EEMIO game environment integrates the framing, less cognitive effort is required by the learner
have the added ability to share their knowledge with newcomers, and as a result be rewarded through various incentives. use of a badge system to demonstrate mastery of a skill. (Bruner, 1990).
Mastery is accomplished by correctly identifying situations
Interaction Design which require the use of a tool. The badge metaphor also Cut Scenes: Several of the non-playing characters (NPCs)
serves as an intrinsic motivator for the learners to revisit scattered throughout the game environment help to
Iconic Based Menu System (Desktop): Since the learners reading ability could span from competent reader, to very low reading acquired skills throughout their gaming sessions. further the story line and to establish tone of the game.
ability, the main menu navigational elements are couple with symbolic representations. Learners lacking reading skills can use The type of information provided to the learner ranges
the illustrated representation to aid their navigation through the system. from the disbursement of tools, to information dumps that
provide key information by NPCs. (Dickey, 2005)
Color Coding (Toy): The EEMIO toy uses color coding as one of the methods for the learner to differentiate what emotion the toy
is currently on (Tidwell, 2005). When EEMIO is on one of it’s four emotional sides, a large LED color coded light blinks above the
literal facial expression. This color coding also allows the user to avoid errors by providing a simple indicator of EEMIO’s emo-
tional state in the event that the toy’s facial expression is not directly visible. (Lidwell et. al, 2003)

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

evaluation
Usability Testing

At all times of engagement, EEMIO stores time stamped data relevant to both physical (toy) and computer-based game play
session. Interactions such as; which types of activities have been played, average interactions per minute, and activity us-
age history will be made available to the facilitator via graphical representations. By analyzing this data, the facilitator and
designer, will be able to make gauge weather a learner is interested in an activity, is having difficulty locating an activity, or
continually drops off a specific activity.

Formative Educational Evaluation

Embedded Assessments: Both the toy and the game will have embedded assessments. These assessments take the form of
meaningful questioning that is activated during game play. For example, each time the EEMIO toy states a new emotional
crisis, he follows up with “How do you think I feel?” The learner is then instructed to turn EEMIO to the respective side that cor-
relates to what the learner believes to be EEMIO’s emotion, based on the description of the event.

Observational Assessments: EEMIO is intended to be used in the presence of a facilitator, preferably a social worker or coun-
selor. By observing the child’s interactions with EEMIO, the facilitator will gain information about the child’s emotional state,
interaction methods, coping mechanisms and family situation. Children often feel less intimidated by a toy or inanimate
object than by an adult, especially when it comes to discussing emotions and other personal topics.

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer

references
Britez, Loren. Personal INTERVIEW. 5 November 2009.

Bruner, J. (1990), Acts of meaning, Cambridge: Harvard University Press,

Crawford, C. (2003). Chris Crawford on game design. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders Publishing.

Dickey, Michele (2005). Engaging By Design: How Engagement Strategies in Popular Computer and Video Games Can Inform Instructional Design.
ETR&D, Vol. 53, No. 2, 2005, pp. 67–83

Driscoll, M. (2005). Psychology of Learning for Instruction (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. (pp. 77-91)

Irwin, Mary Jane, (2009) Unlocking Achievements: Rewarding Skill With Player Incentives. Gamasutra. Retrieved from http://www.gamasutra.com/
view/feature/3976/unlocking_achievements_rewarding_.php

Jonassen, David H., Hernandez-Serrano, Julian (2002) Case-based reasoning and instructional design: Using Stories to Support Problem Solving. Edu-
cational Technology, Research and Development. Research Library Vol 50, No 2.

Lidwell, W., Holden, K., Butler, J. (2003 Universal Principles of Design. Rockport Publishers.

Mayer, R.E. (Ed.) (2005). Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. New York: Cambridge.

Polkinghorne, D. (1988). Narrative knowing and the human sciences. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Schank, R.C., Fano, A., Bell, B., & Jona, M. (1993). The design of goal-based scenarios. The Joumal of the Learning Sciences, 3(4), 305-346.

Tidwell, Jennifer (2005) Designing Interfaces. O’Reilly Media

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Alex Britez and Adrienne Schafer