Designing for Children's Collective Music Making: How Spatial Orientation and Configuration Matter.

Hitmachine empowers children to make music through building physical, shared interactive instruments from Lego Mindstorms™ and playing them to a beat. The design rationale for Hitmachine draws upon the collective interaction model, theories of proxemics and F-formations, as well as a framework for social interaction. Hitmachine was evaluated during a 4-day workshop where 150 children aged 3-13 engaged with the system. Based on lessons from this workshop we point to key issues to consider when designing for collective music making. This includes designing for multiple access points and spatial orientation of these, designing for sense of impact as well as sense of control, and giving careful consideration to how the spatial configuration of technological artifacts and furniture can provide opportunities for social interaction.