Preserving mother-language and cultures; A lifetime support activities of interaction design

Preserving mother-language and cultures;

A lifetime support activities of interaction design

Lia Meilyawati

Interactive Design One-Year Master 15 Credits Spring 2018

Abstract

Globalisation and fast evolution of technologies have driven people to immigrate and live outside their home country. The multicultural society is no longer extraordinary. This thesis project explores the role and form of technologies and interactive design in assisting the parents with an ethnic background to introduce their culture and language to their children, as well as in maintaining its application in their everyday lives. The primary focus group are parents whose originated from Indonesia and have been living in other countries for more than two years.

This research has utilised the user-research method employed in the design research process. The result suggested that persistence, consistency and community support are primary in promoting the preservation of the parents’ cultural background and language. Therefore, technology and interactive design have a significant impact to support it. The design outcome is a physical prototype combined with digitalised media support such as a website and an application.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.2 Aim and scope of the research ... 5

1.3 Research questions ... 6

2.1 Preserving the parent’s languages ... 7

2.2 Heritage language ... 7

2.3 The family dynamic and parent's role in introducing cultural heritage and language ... 8

2.4 Children development through play and games ... 9

2.4.1 Digital vs physical ... 9

2.5 Related works ... 10

2.5.1 Calliope ... 10

2.5.2 Osmo ... 11

2.5.3 Moonlite ... 12

2.5.4 Timun mas - interactive shadow box theatre ... 12

3.1 Project plan ... 13

3.2 Web-based survey and interview ... 14

3.3 Cultural probes ... 15

3.4 Co-design design workshops ... 16

3.5 Synthesising and 'sense-making' ... 16

3.6 Sketching and prototyping ... 16

3.7 Ethical consideration ... 17

4.1 The first phase of the double diamond: discover ... 17

4.1.1 Web-based survey ... 17

4.1.1 Interview ... 18

4.2 The second phase of the double diamond: define ... 18

4.2.1 Cultural probes ... 18

4.2.2 Co-design workshop one: design opportunity and use situation ... 19

4.3 The third and fourth phase of the double diamond: develop and deliver ... 21

4.3.1 Co-design workshop two: design opportunities, use situation and developments ... 21

4.3.2 Synthesising and conclusion ... 23

4.3.3 Sketching and Prototyping ... 25

5.1 Revisiting and answer to the research questions ... 30

5.2 The final design concept ... 31

5.2.1 The physical wooden box (The keepsake) ... 31

5.2.2 The website and application ... 33

6.1 The final design concept (the final prototype) ... 35

6.2 The design process ... 36

Appendix A – The web-based survey result ... 42

Appendix B – Interview ... 60

Appendix C – Co-design workshop 1 ... 61

Appendix D – Co-design workshop 2 ... 63

Appendix E – The final design concept activity ... 64

Appendix F – The website ... 68

Appendix G – The application ... 71

1. INTRODUCTION:

People who live outside their original home countries are common nowadays. Increased industrialisation and financial opportunities abroad along with the advancement of technology

contribute to immigration. According to Catalano (2016), different types of migrants are referred to and classified in many different ways: the period of stay (permanent versus temporary), the motivation for migration (e.g., economic migrant, refugees), the legal status, or whether they are adult or children. In her book, Talking About Global Migration: Implications for Language Teaching, she presented individual stories and voices of immigrants that illustrate the background reason for their move. The reasons included but are not limited to family, employment, education, conflict, lack of security, lack of opportunity and persecution. Immigration leads to multicultural societies with diverse linguistic and cultural background. From her educational experience, she argues on how vital it is for migrant students or educators, especially language teachers, to be aware and learn from this.

However, it is frequent to discover children with a minority background, who have conflict about their identity. This issues appeared because having different ethnic background and appearances makes them potentially unaccepted by their peers. However, according to Jourdan (2016), participants who have support from their family tend to be more positive about their ethnic identity and thus their ability to interact with people from different ethnic backgrounds is better.

As a parent with a mix of cultural background, it is highly likely that my children will experience this concept of self-identity and moral conflict throughout their developmental stages. This reason drives my interest in this topic.

This thesis project aims to investigate if technology and interaction design have defined roles in supporting me as a parent not only in introducing my ethnic background but also to document their progress throughout their developmental growth. Furthermore, to explore the possibilities of utilising these technologies to support children through their developmental stages in helping to find not only new activities but also to serve as a nostalgic reminder which they can always revisit throughout their lives. In the physical prototype or the system, parents could leave some documented notes or journal in their children's growth stages.

1.2 Aim and scope of the research

In this research paper, various methods of approach were conducted in the design research process. These methods combined quantitative data collection over a web-based survey and qualitative

approaches were used in an interview, cultural probes, co-design workshops, mind mapping, sketching, wireframing and prototyping. The purpose of utilising these methods is to explore the role of

technology in helping migrant parents (especially those who originated from Indonesia as the primary user group) in preserving their knowledge of language and culture by passing it to their offspring and allowing the participants to convey their perceptions and solution to the problem.

In the first stage, we study the current situation of the dynamics between parents and children in the migrant families with one or both parents originating from Indonesia and as well as those who have been living abroad for more than two years. Furthermore, we examine how this method could assist us in the design process to create a design concept that could support both parents and their children to answer not only the research questions but also strengthen the bond between them in the process.

In this thesis project, there are some limitations especially when it comes to the designer’s role. Löwgren & Stolterman (2004) argued that in the design process, a designer’s involvement in creating something whole is crucial. How the design artefact is supposed to be designed, not only its structure and function have to fit in a broader context. However, introducing the culture and languages that have

been embedded into someone’s life will need time and persistence; Therefore, there is a demand for the involvement of the other experts in psychology and pedagogy to investigate the human development and its behaviour, which the designer could not fulfil as it was not the main focus of this project.

Due to time and technical constraints, this research does not aim to deliver a finished product, instead this research aims to explore, documents and analyse the overall results of the design process. An outcome of the project will be a concept of a prototype that initiates discussion between Indonesian immigrant families with Indonesian origin, or others in general, the interactive design communities and educators.

1.3 Research questions

The primary research question that this thesis trying to answer is; What are the technology and interactive design role in facilitating the parents to preserve their mother tongue/culture?

Through the exploration process will also inform the sub-question;

• What form of technology in interaction design could be adapted to this situation?

• How will this technology keep the interest of both parents and children in engaging in the activities which inform the parent's culture origin?

2. THEORY

Cultural heritage is a legacy of the ways people live that established by the community, or a group of people, whether it forms a tangible artefact or an intangible heritage. According to UNESCO (2011), it does not end at monuments and collections of objects; it is inherited from generation to generation, for example, oral tradition, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, and practices

concerning nature and the universe. Additionally, it is also generally perceived through cuisine, fashion, religious ceremony, art, storytelling, traditional skills and technology used to produce traditional craft. Intangible Cultural heritage, as UNESCO described it, is an essential factor in maintaining cultural diversity in the modern globalised societies. By opening up to intercultural dialogue and encouraging respect for other ways of life help build a comprehensive understanding of the intangible cultural heritage of the different communities. However, it can be only heritage when it recognised by such communities, group or individuals that create, maintain and transmit it, or else without their recognition; it will die out.

Cultures and languages tightly connect through ideas, customs, and traditions. It is typically passed on through communication. For some part, culture does not rely on words, (e.g. one may pass on

traditional craft and skill by showing or imitating, or through dance or rituals) but most of the practices are related to the ideas, knowledge, belief that can be understood when recounted through languages. It is not only crucial for maintaining the intangible cultural heritage but also part of it.

In this research project, I will heavily focus on the language as a primary means to connect and interact with the extended family. However, another form of culture such as social practices, cuisine, art, music and musical instrument, landmarks, could be used as materials in the context of introducing general knowledge about Indonesia.

2.1 Preserving the parent’s languages

The family who successfully resides and integrates into the destination country will consciously or subconsciously pass their culture to their offspring, whether in the form of communication, cultural celebrations, foods, songs and other routines. It is highly likely that children from immigrant families are expected to speak their parents’ language or heritage language (HL) to some extent to communicate at home or with their extended family in the country of origin.

In the US, the term Heritage Language (HL) refers to the other languages besides English that is relevant to their pupils because of their family (Hiatt, Caspe & Kreider, 2013). An individual who has exposure to another language other than English at home and educated primarily in English is considered as being an HL speaker (Carreira & Kagan, 2011; Hiatt, Caspe & Kreider, 2013). The increased demand for multilinguistic competency and intercultural understanding along with the development of globalisation has benefited children with such multicultural background. Hiatt

suggested in his paper that children with exposure to more than one language have been more efficient word-learners and they are more conscious of the structure of the language which benefited them in the overall reading ability (Cummins, 1979: Kaushanskaya, & Marian, 2009; Hiatt, Caspe & Kreider, 2013).

In Sweden, there is language law that aims not only to assure the use of Swedish language as the primary language but also to protect and develop the official minority languages, as well as the other native languages spoken by immigrants and heritage speakers (Aronin et al., 2013). Mother tongue language education, or modersmålundervisning, was introduced in late 1960s due to a high demand from immigrants. However, hemspråk, as it is more commonly known, has created controversy since the beginning due to a decentralised approach to education, which created disagreement in the quality of teaching (The Local, 2011). According to Mats Wemmerholm, former Director of Education for the Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket), reported to thelocal.se (2011); the challenges are to find well-qualified teachers, to find pupils who are willing to have extra classes and parents as motivators. He also mentioned how keeping a student's first language could increase their self-esteem and better their performance in school.

2.2 Heritage language

Cummins (1979, 2000) argued that engagement and support from the family in literacy practices of Heritage Language (HL) facilitate the learning and the reading in English or any other languages because many literacy skills transfer from one language to another. The motivation that becomes the initial assumption of family engagement in HL included: (1) Seeing how HL could potentially evolve into a requirement for communicating with extended family members. (2) As awareness of the importance of heritage language for children's identity development. (3) Perceiving that they have resources in HL which may have an advantage in their children's future education and professional lives (Carreira & Kagan, 2011; Hiatt, Caspe & Kreider, 2013).

However, based on the age of the children and where they are residing, the HL can be affected by more proficiency of local languages due to more significant exposure to it (Barron-Hauwaert, 2000). From her research, she stated that children aged from two to three and a half years used the mother's language, children over the age of three or four years used the father's speech, and children aged six years and older used the language of the country where they inhabit as their first language. The use of local language in older children is a result of necessity in school where they interact with their teacher and peers or contacts from the community who possibly communicate only in the local language. Additionally, there growing evidence in the bilingual communities in which one language is very dominant than the other (Gathercole & Thomas, 2009). They also suggest that bilingual children may not come to a full mastery of both languages in some contexts.

2.3 The family dynamic and parent's role in introducing cultural heritage and language

Children are exposed to languages and communication whilst they are still in the womb. According to research from Patricia Kuhl, a scientist at the University of Washington and the first recipient of the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair for Early learning childhood learning, a child's auditory system becomes ready to receive and remember sounds in the last ten week or so of pregnancy. The time they spent eavesdropping on their mother whilst in the womb, generate their native tongues preferences. Foetuses are listening to melodies of speech, and they are natural pattern seekers. Not only that, she found that while monolingual babies preferred their native language, infants exposed to more to one language in the utero are comfortable with both of those languages.

There are possibilities for children to master all the languages they have encountered during their developmental growth, as long as it was presented in a natural context. For example; whilst the father speaks to the child in Italian, the mother speaks Indonesian or teacher in the pre-school speaks Swedish on a daily basis to the child. Research shows that language learning with more than one language is a process that works optimally with separation of the primary speaker or a well-known technique called OPOL (One Person, One Language). This technique requires consistency and severity if the parents decide that the grandmother speaks Italian, then she will always need to speak with the children in this language every time. This technique has proven to established with success (Palmarola, 2018; Hirsk-Pasek et al., 2004).

Parents believe that they have a significant role in giving their children a language lesson. This role means being their language tutors who guide them every day on a 24/7 basis. However, the reality is children develop language on their own. Not that they do not need to hear the language, they do, but most naturally. So what is the parent's role in engaging developmental stages of the language of their children? In every conversation, everyone needs a partner in order to have a discussion, stories to narrate, to engage in more elaborate conversations, to connect, and that is where the parents fill in. The more time we talk with our children, the more data they have to interpret, which builds a better

foundation for their language knowledge.

According to the study which investigated the parents' role in language learning carried out by Professors Betty Hart and Todd Risley, senior scientists at the Schiefelbush Institute for Life Span Studies at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, the parents and children interact with one another and this as a result, enhances the child’s ability to acquire languages. In their study, they looked at families with distinct social backgrounds to investigate the speech interaction in professional families, working-class families, and families on welfare. From which, their data identified that the average child from professional families heard an average of 2,153 words per hours, where as the working-class child heard about 1,251 words and the welfare child only heard about 616 words (as cited in Hirsk-Pasek et al., 2004). The amount of speech is not the only thing they looked at, but also the type of language parents used with their children. Some parents are using disapproval language (a negative statement such as "No," or "Don't do that" or "stop that") and others are using affirmation (a definite statement that includes praise, encouragement, and compliments). The disapproval language closed off conversations rather than engage children to talk, whereas with affirmation language does the opposite. When the researcher checked on the data in how affirmation and disapproval languages were used in

Professional families, working-class families and welfare families, the findings were very surprising. The child from a professional family heard about thirty-two affirmations and five disapprovals per hour, whereas the child from working-class heard roughly about twelve affirmations and seven disapprovals per hour. The type of language used is in contrast to children from welfare family which received five affirmations and eleven disapprovals. This finding could indicate that children from professional and working-class families are being encouraged and praised while the welfare children are given a command to follow, which doesn't help to improve their self-esteem.

The essential part to answer the question of how children learn to talk and whether they will expand their vocabulary is by talking with them (Hirsk-Pasek et al., 2004). Conversation is not only contributing to language development but also children's expanding knowledge about the worlds, to communicate their ideas and their eagerness to use in the dialogue with others. The challenge for parents and the caregivers will be how to prompt an elaborate talk with their child. It is not hard to do, the only thing we need to observe is their topic of interest and follow their lead in expanding the conversation.

The only thing necessary is to enjoy the language games that may contain some cultural heritage as part of the topic. It is essential to encourage the children to talk and make them a conversational partner from the start.

2.4 Children development through play and games

Growing up in the 21st century is considered to be more complicated than the previous one. The thing that has not changed is how children love to play, and it is regarded as the efficient way for children to learn. In his book, Homo Ludens, Huizinga argued that play is essential in all aspect of culture. Many play scholars also frame play as a complex product, social and cultural pattern (as cited in Salen and Zimmerman, 2006, p.84). The act of playing is also considered as an act of meta-communication, a form of communication about communication (Bateson, 1955). It is because any act performs with an understanding that "this is play." Players perform an act about the real-world activities, but also these actions communicate them consciously that it "just a play."

However, with the advent of technology in recent times, there is a myriad of countless "educational gadgets" and technologies available today that promise to enhance children's learning ability. They sway the parents into the thinking that these tools are what their children need. Parents then equip their children with the most advanced and new-tech educational toys that they can purchase. Although these tools or toys do help to some degree because of the excitement the children derive from the technology itself, or how interactive and engaging the device could be and thus, adding value to the children’s development skills and particularly, in languages, problem-solving, and communication; but it is key to note that the involvement of the parents and the caretaker is very crucial. The educational values are added when the parents are interacting with their child, questioning them while play and asking about strategies, knowledge about the context and taking them to visit, see or make the real ones as a part of their daily lives. The best time will be when the parents and children have designated quality times whether it is daily or occasionally with activities that suit their developmental stages and time available for both parties. It is essential not to push children beyond their developmental

capacities because the experience will frustrate the parents and even more for their child. The play and games should be fun in order to be effective; therefore, if the child does not find it enjoyable, then one has to stop and try it again at another time or try a game that better fits the child’s age (Galinsky,2010).

2.4.1 Digital vs physical

As technology becomes ubiquitous in our day-to-day lives, it is common that most households own more than one gadget namely a couple of computers, Television, smartphones, and tablet. Tech gadget boosts not only productivity in many sectors but also supports our daily activities, such as family activities. As parents, it is easier to be in touch with the family member, primarily to monitor the children when the parents are away at work. They provide their children with smartphones so they can call them at any time to check up on them. These gadgets, complete with fast-paced of internet connection, have turned most of our children into "Digital Natives." Mark Prensky, known as a consultant, an author, and educational software designer invented this term (McHale, 2005; Selwyn; 2009). He described this term for the generation of young people born in 1980, due to how essential these technologies are for this young people's existence. For the “Digital Natives” who become parents, it is somewhat uncommon for them these days to be entirely offline and away from their gadgets and their children are imitating this behaviour to some extent.

According to the article from Lauren Smiley, the writer from the Verge (2018), there are some alarming consequences for children with extensive exposure to screens and other technologies. A campaign "Truth About Tech", launched by Tech industry insider and a non-profit organization called “Common Sense”, pointed out frightening consequences such as how children could be exposed to unhealthy behaviours or outcomes such as cyberbullying, self-harm, addiction, brain development issues, attention deficit, and distraction, healthy growth, media literacy, fake news, tolerance (Common Sense Media, 2018). This campaign was created to push the creation of ethical standards for the tech companies, lobbying government funded-research and regulation on the effect of screens, and

promotes digital literacy programmes in schools. However, until this takes into effect to some massive industry level and regulation is in place, which is unlikely, parents are still the only available regulators, and they can only do so by setting some rules for their children.

On the other hand, some expert mentioned that when used in moderation, technology and social media could help children to build their social skills, their identities and sharing creative projects (Firth, 2017). Additionally, the use of modern information and communication technology for maintaining cognitive function (Bordone, Sherbov, and Steiber, 2015). However, there is limited research which contains large-scale studies, meta-analyses or longitudinal studies when it comes to children and new devices and technologies as described by Anya Kamenetz (2018), in her article on The Cut. The lack of information caused parents to debate against each other for their takes on the application of screen time (Smiley, 2018; Kamanetz, 2018).

2.5 Related works

As mentioned above, previously the growing interest of using technology as a supplement for educational purposes can be seen in the market for more than a decade. Below are some of the examples that promote the use of technology and some of which also strengthened the bond between the parents and the children.

2.5.1 Calliope

Calliope, in the form of an app, is an educational digital storytelling platform for kids that is manipulated through wooden blocks. It consists of two-parts, wooden block and digital platform with a web camera, and is run by processing a sketch. This app detects colours from the wooden blocks and draws out the shapes identified. This operation is done by taking pictures of the wooden block structure that they have created and imports their form into the app. The storytelling platform uses those shapes as a starting point for kids to create their own stories completed with prompts (e.g., once upon a time or every single day) that guide them through the storytelling. The digital platform enables children to create their own story or open the one that was previously stored. This tool promotes the imaginary play that benefited from developing focus and cognitive flexibilities.

The use of physical and tangible toys that are carried out with the digital device to complete the

function of the tool supports children to be active and not only to passively look at the screen. However, this tool also promotes individual play which might hinder the quality time to involve the rest of the family (see Figure 1).

2.5.2 Osmo

Osmo is a series of educational digital and physical game system that changed how children interact with iPad and iPhone. This system encourages the children's creative thinking and social interaction by expanding gameplay beyond the screen while keeping them interested. Using Osmo's reflective mirror to the Ipad to activate an app, enables Osmo's Artificial Intelligence technology. This technology bridges the physical and the digital worlds, which can bring real-world playback into digital gaming (see Figure 2).

Osmo has ten different games application and toys along with a base that fits iPad and reflector attachment that clips over the iPad's camera. From this product, we can examine the qualities that can be adapted to a certain level for the project. These qualities included the variety of games, the use of physical and digital tools to play and learn. However, this product was mainly created for children over

Figure 2. Osmo’s game system and tools. Source https://www.playosmo.com/en/. (Access on April 27, 2018)

five years old up to twelve years old. There are no other products for other age groups to use this device at the time when this research is written

2.5.3 Moonlite

Moonlite, an easy-to-use storybook projector for the mobile phone user, supports the child’s favourite storybooks into an immersive and magical experience. The stories from the firm reel, come to life with vivid projections, complete with sound effects, background music and more when paired with the Moonlite app (see Figure 3).

It started off as a Kickstarter project, and this product becomes accessible amongst parents who want to enrich their children bedtime story experience with the use of a smartphone, their downloadable application and additional tools which could be bought in their website. This device is another alternative that promotes quality time between parents and children, besides story books.

2.5.4 Timun mas - interactive shadow box theatre

Timun Mas is a project done by Indonesian master student of Child culture design in Goteborg University as part of her course. It is an interactive shadow box theatre with four different background settings which enables children to explore and experience shadow play to create their own stories. The prototype completed with a series of character that related to the stories which children could play and interact with. It was designed based on the adaptation of Indonesian folklore story called Timun Mas (Golden Cucumber), it described an adventure of a brave child called Timun Mas, who is chased by a giant who is after her life (see Figure 4).

Figure 3. Moonlite. Source https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1483155071. (Access on May 4, 2018)

This story could be one alternative not only to introduce the culture with the Indonesian folklore but also to enhance imagination and encourage children to create their own story with different available characters and customised supportive backgrounds.

3. METHOD

In general, the methodology chosen for this thesis is the Double diamond method as an iterative design process. The method consists of four steps: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver. Additionally, other design exercises were performed as part of phases, and prototypes were tested to generate learning and insights from the users along with the Online survey, cultural probes, and co-design workshops. The decision of choosing the design method and project plan overview will be explained.

3.1 Project plan

In the first phase (discover), the web-based survey was conducted along with literature reviews about children developments, parents’ role, how cultures from both parents and their host country shaped it. In this phase, insights were gathered and reviewed into the main problem (see Figure 5).

Figure 4. Timun mas interactive shadow box theater. Source https://www.behance.net/gallery/28333533. (Access on May 4, 2018)

Figure 5. Overall project plan.

Moving to the second phase (Define) to gain more in-depth observation about the family with more than one culture daily life, cultural probes and co-design workshop were carried out. Synthesizing the gathered data from the previous activities by mind mapping clustered it into an array of design opportunities and investigated the main issues. In the third Phase (Develop), design ideas were developed, tested and iterated. This process resulted in the last phase (Deliver) where the final design will be finalised and presented.

3.2 Web-based survey and interview

Firstly, in order to understand the dynamics of married couples living abroad and in specific; couples in mixed-race marriages (i.e. where one of the parents is of Indonesian origin) and Indonesian couples who have been living in another country for more than two years, a quantitative study was conducted. This method is included in the first stage of the double diamond (Discover). The ability of the internet to allow access to unique population of groups or individuals in various locations as well as the

convenience of having automated data collection was an advantage that web-based survey could offer (Wright, 2005). Due to time and cost constraint, this method was chosen.

To reach a broader audience, a web-based survey posted in social media (Facebook) groups with Indonesian mixed marriage topics, such as; Komunitas Kawin Campur, Komunitas Indonesia di Eropa, Kekeluargaan Warga Indonesia di Luar Negeri, and Indonesiani in Italia. This survey aimed to

investigate the common perception of couples from different backgrounds, on their belief in the introduction of their cultural background and their mother tongue to their offspring, and if this is an essential aspect to consider whether it would be useful to teach those culture and knowledge to their children.

The interview was conducted to further explore the point of view of individuals with biracial identities. It investigated their experience as mixed-race children where they grow up in a culturally-diverse

household and within a “second” or third “culture (i.e. where one parent is Indonesian and the family lives in one of the parents’ home country or as a family, they are residing in neither parents’ home country); and this interview aims to understand how this experience affects the children and later on as an adult.

3.3 Cultural probes

Along with the web-based survey, cultural probes were sent out to the willing participants with one or both parents who are of Indonesian ethnicity. The cultural probe was conducted not only with the primary focus on finding the solution for user need but also towards providing new design opportunities (Gaver, Dunne & Pacenti, 1999). In this thesis project, I adapted the probes objectives according to Crabtree et al. (2003) and Hemming et al. (2002) and developed it to apply the information gathered instead of inspiration probing. The artistic design of the information probes artefact is less critical (Hemming et al. 2002). Therefore, it was mainly used to inform the researcher and as dialogue materials between them and the users for the next research phase. However, there are possibilities in the content of the cultural probes that might contain the solution or new design opportunities. In this approach, users are given an opportunity for experiments, to observe and potentially also to record and reflect on their experience with the tools that were prepared by the researcher. The aim of this activity could be potentially to bridge the user needs and the concept design phase (Mattelmaki, 2007).

For this thesis research, there are six willing participants with children from various age groups (i.e. three families who each have one child aged between 1.5 year to 2.6 years, one family with two children aged 2 and 4, and one family with one child of seven years of age). After giving their verbal consent to participate, all of the participants were handed with the cultural-probe package which contained a diary with written instructions, an adhesive tape, sticky notes and colourful pens (see figure 6).

Figure 6. The cultural probes.

The participants are requested to write or draw their mundane daily lives. In the introduction paper, they also received directions on what they should write or draw, such as; family introductions, daily activities of parents, daily activities of the children, what games or toys do the children prefer, what are their interest, do the children need a company when they play, how often they speak Bahasa to their children and their bedtime routines. Nevertheless, there is no requirement on frequency and how much they could write or draw. As mentioned above, these probes are intended to collect information from the users so they could contribute information useful for shaping the design (Crabtree et al., 2003; Hemming et al., 2002). The results could potentially open up the possible situation to utilise the activities between the parents and the children on a daily basis.

3.4 Co-design design workshops

In parallel with collecting data from the web-based survey, as this thesis project heavily focuses on the users and aims to gain more in-depth insights into to the family dynamic, co-design workshops were conducted. With design thinking proses as the core of the approach, user’s engagement throughout the process is vital. Both users (people usually not trained in design) and designer engage in any act of collective creativity for the design process solution to problems (Sanders & Stappers; 2008). Human-centred is one of five fundamental principles to keep in mind when thinking about a service according to Stickdorn, Hormess, Markus, & Lawrence (2018, p.27). Steen, Manschot, & De Koning (2011)

mentioned that there is tree benefit of co-design in service design project. These benefits are improving the creative process in the service design by developing better service of organising the project more efficiently or effectively, creating a better match for service offer and customer’s need, and improving creativity to focus on customers or user cooperation between disciplines. This thesis project could potentially appeal to other stakeholders after it is established, which also means that another design process thinking is needed after its evolution.

The first workshop (Discover) was planned for four participants, however, due to unpredictable circumstances with the attendance, two separate workshops were conducted with two participants took part in each workshop. The goal of this workshops is to find a design opportunity and use situation when the technology could be applied in the family dynamic and identify what form of activities would be suitable for both parents and children. The participants were parents with children whose ages are in the range of 1.5 to 4 years old.

The second workshop conducted in the third stage (Develop) of the thesis project was conducted to test the prototypes for further iteration process.

3.5 Synthesising and 'sense-making'

All the data gathered from the literature reviews, a web-based survey, cultural probes, workshop one are being synthesised for the ideation process. Most recurring issues and critical insight discovered in the two phase of the method is mapped, interpret and analysed. According to Kolko (2010), synthesis reveals coherence and the sense of progression which leads to clarity. He describes that design is an approach of ordering the complexity and finding clarity in chaos. After the data was interpreted, various sketching and mapping were explored to find the possible solution.

3.6 Sketching and prototyping

Sketching is dominantly created early in the ideation stages, to explore, purpose, suggest, question, provoke ideas as described by Buxton (2007, p.141). It is considered to be fast, and inexpensive to analyse the ideas to explore the possible solution of the problems. In this project, a series of sketches started in the second phase (Define) of the Double Diamond method which gradually transitions to the low-fidelity of prototypes in the following phase (Develop) to be tested by users and gathered the feedback for the further iteration design process.

Prototypes were created to investigate the question of what an artefact could benefit the users (Houde & Hill, 1997). Additionally, it represents the design ideas which carried a three-dimensional space that correlate with the critical aspect of an interactive artefact. In a later stage of the thesis project, few prototypes were created that could test the ideas from earlier stages by the user and examined before present the final design. The purpose of each prototype will explain in chapter four.

The prototypes of this projects are a low-fidelity prototype of activities. In this thesis research, activities in early childhood, children around 1.5 - 3 years old described by Erikson's stages of development (Knight, 2017), will be tested and collect the feedback from the focus group.

3.7 Ethical consideration

This thesis research follows the ethical standards as formulated in Good Research Practice (Swedish Research Council, 2017). Throughout the workshops, all the participants were informed orally and in writing about the topic, the goal of the research, and that the gathered materials would be used solely for research purpose. Their participation was voluntary and was not required to be part of any follow-up exercises or workshops.

For workshops which involved participants who were underage (namely, below 3 years of age), all the children were accompanied by their parents/guardian throughout the entire session. The parents have given permission orally, and their children identity will remain anonymous. The process of this project caused no physical, mental and ethical harm to the participants.

It is often said that immigration is a threat to the host nation’s identity as most immigrants arrive with their own tradition, history, values, practices and ceremonies (Samuel., 2007). A host country which has a massive influx of immigration face difficulties in sustaining their traditions and practices that define their own distinctive cultural identity. However, this distinctive identity of the host nation could

potentially create or become a source of conflict as the immigrants might feel unfamiliar, alienated and oppressed in the new environment (Samuel, 2007). When it comes to preserving one’s cultural identity, Race and racism are topics that gave rise to discussion inevitably. These issues are known and should always be kept in mind when approaching the topic of ethics of integration in society and politics.

4. DESIGN PROCESS

4.1 The first phase of the double diamond: discover 4.1.1 Web-based survey

In the first stage of the thesis project, I explored the knowledge of families on heritage language and culture, understanding the expectation and pre-assumption of parents who live in host country outside their native land. As described in chapter 3.2, a web-based survey (Appendix A) was conducted with a total of forty-three participants; all of whom were females with an Indonesian background, between 20 to 50 years of age and are married to partners of other nationalities. The phenomenon of only female participants contributed to the survey could relate to social media groups such as Facebook, where it was distributed to its members as mentioned in chapter 3.2. The majority and the most active

participants in such social media groups are females, and the assumption that the mother is in charge of fulfilling their children’s needs in understanding Indonesian culture is still prevalent. Nonetheless, it still provides a good overview of the participants’ collective understanding of the importance of introducing their culture and traditions to their children.

According to the data collected from the survey, the majority of the participants (76.1%) spoke their native language (i.e. Bahasa Indonesia) with their children and believed that the children understood them (83.7%). However only almost half (48.8%) of the children could speak their language. There are several reasons as to why the offspring or children do not or cannot effectively converse in Bahasa. Firstly, once the grandparents pass on, these children lack the opportunity to communicate in Bahasa. Secondly and in addition to that, some of these children may not have extended family members to communicate in Bahasa with. Thirdly, as they live abroad, they necessarily do not see the incentive of utilising Bahasa especially when most of the interactions are done in English or the language of the host country. As a result, one does not utilise Bahasa as a language and Bahasa takes second or third place in importance, following the local host country language and English.

Activities that support the introduction of their language and culture to the participants/children mostly are: daily conversations, play, storytelling, nursery songs, watching Indonesian children song in

YouTube, watching movies, reading books, playdate with other children with the same backgrounds, and visiting the parent's home country. In general, more than half of them (51.2%) are using application or games to teach their children to learn a language, and the majority of the participants (72.1%) tends to consider that technology is helping them to teach their children the language. Children are so enthusiastic about the gadgets like tablet and smartphone, and with these devices, they could play and watch it for a specific time without feeling pressure or losing interest. It is interactive and provides them with a different variety of games, songs, stories, or even movies. The others (27.9%) with younger children who are limiting or do not introduce any screen time at all, think that learning the language through an application is too generic and their children would miss the notion of the cultural context; therefore, they feel the best way to teach them is through interacting with supportive activities that promote cultural heritage.

However, there are not so many options to learn Bahasa Indonesia through the downloadable applications in Google Play or App store. Besides availabilities of the application, the activities do not necessarily help the relationship between parents and the child as only 37.2% of the participants accompany their children or play with them. The participants (51.2%) are not sure if the technology could maintain this process throughout their children's development period.

4.1.1 Interview

As mentioned in chapter 3.2, the interview explored the point of view of a person with a biracial identity. The interview investigated further on how families exposed the children to their Indonesian background, how the children saw themselves in the community and how it will affect them in their life later as an adult. The interview was done via email exchanged due to the geographical distance (Appendix B).

One of the respondents interviewed was a 27 years old female. Currently living in London, the UK, she comes from a mixed-race background of Indonesian (maternal) and British (paternal). Growing up, she never had an impression that she was different from her peers and she never felt insecure about having a different ethnic background. Unlike her elder sister, she never experienced racial bullying from her peers. She was exposed to both Indonesian food and Bahasa, but she did not learn it exclusively which resulted in the inability to understand or communicate using the language. She keeps contact with her maternal extended family, through phone or letter and visits them. However, due to the geographical distance, the exposure to the paternal family was more significant than her mother’s side.

As an adult, she began to notice the prejudice. In London, people saw her as a foreigner and this was the same when she lived in Jakarta, thus on face value she did not fit on either place. However, she felt lucky about having parents from two diverse cultures. She has expanded her social circle to

international persons, and she is very open to other cultures.

4.2 The second phase of the double diamond: define 4.2.1 Cultural probes

As mentioned in chapter 3.2, these cultural probes aim to collect information on the typical family dynamics (Crabtree et al., 2003; Hemming et al., 2002), limited to participants within the focus group, informs, shapes and initiates dialogue with the writer for iterative design concept process (Mattelmaki; 2007). As the participants are mostly mothers with children, the commitment to the probes is flexible. They are not forced to fill the diary on a daily basis and could choose whatever topics they would like to write or draw.

Due to the different schedule and geographical location of the participants, the cultural probes collected took more than a week, which was longer than initially planned. However, even though with extra time, not all the participants wrote their routine in detail but more in the general overview (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. Cultural probes data collection.

Almost all the participants do not have a strict routine for their children and spoke more than one language with them. Most children over four years of age enjoy playing independently on their own, whereas most of the children aged three and below always prefer their parents’ interaction and involvement when they are playing The participants interact with their children on a daily basis and the most common “timeframe” being in the mornings, after pre-school hours and before bedtime; and they spend more time interacting on holidays and in the weekends. The participants have no exact timing on when they interact with them in Bahasa; however, it is mostly done when they are only together with the child.

4.2.2 Co-design workshop one: design opportunity and use situation

The first workshop was conducted with two participants, both of them are Indonesians, and they each have one son under the age of three. In this occasion, one of the participants brought their son to the workshop. As mention in chapter 3.3, the goal of this workshops is to find design opportunity and use situation, when and what kind of technology could be applied and what form of activities might be suitable for both parents and the children.

For the material and exercises for this workshop are loosely adapted from the Convivial toolbox (Sanders & Stappers, 2013). The structure of this workshop, consists of two exercises (Appendix C).

The first exercise is to explore family dynamic with metaphors, what if their family was A, how their activities are going to look like and what is the role of each family. Two example of the exercise created for the workshop can be seen in table 1.

Metaphors “ What if” Questions

• Your family is an office • How will playtime be?

• When the family get together? • How will the education look like? • Your family is a Kingdom

Table 1. Metaphor exercise examples.

The second exercise was mapping. Each of the participants received a paper with pens and pictures along with some questions. The goal of this exercise was to explore what their children most commonly enjoy, what is their routine, and what they think will happen in the future, as well as to understand how the relationship between the family and their children is (see Figure 8).

Figure 8. Mapping exercise and result.

Overall the workshop was not as productive as it was hoped to be. This outcome occurred mainly due to the children who were always asking for attention, and this affected the participants’ concentration in each of the exercises. In the first exercise, participants also have difficulties to associate the family as a metaphor mentioned in the exercise; therefore, there were no significant findings in this exercise. In the second exercise, only a few questions were mind-mapped, and this did not cover all the intended questions designed for the exercise.

However, several things were discovered in this workshop that supports the outcome of the Web-based survey (Table 2);

Findings Response

• When they are asked to imagine the future of their children, the parents tend to choose pictures that are technology-related, such as a computer, smartphone and games console.

• Explore which devices which user-group use the most and their point of view on screen time for their children.

• Books, toys, language, and music are also considered useful for passing their cultural background.

• Investigate further which kind of books, toys, language, and music.

• The importance of learning Bahasa primarily to relate and communicate with the extended family in Indonesia.

• Explore possibilities on activities that could carry out through phone or online

communication.

• Routine is not strictly carried out in their

daily lives, especially for their children. • Flexibility is an essential quality to be _{successfully integrated into their daily} activities.

• Food and language are the things that they introduce very early in their children developmental stages.

• Consider several activities that involve food and language.

Table 2. Workshop One: findings and responses.

4.3 The third and fourth phase of the double diamond: develop and deliver

4.3.1 Co-design workshop two: design opportunities, use situation and developments

A second workshop was carried out in the following week. However, based on the reflection of the first workshop, the second workshop was adjusted to be more constructive. In this workshop, the willing participants were different from the previous one. They are both Indonesians; one is the mother of two children aged four and two, whilst the second participant is a mother of one whose child is only a one and a half years old.

The structure of the workshop was slightly changed with one added toolkit and exercise (Appendix D). In this workshop, design development exercise is also included at the end of the workshop. The first exercise still used metaphors to discover an unpredictable answer. The second exercise was a question cube, this time each of the participants handed in a cube which contained a question on each side. This exercise aims to gather extra detail information which did not discover the first co-design workshop. They then could write, draw, or stick images that could represent the answer to the questions. In this exercise, the participants explored all the questions on each side of the cube and gave feedback. The third exercise was mapping. This time, this exercise aimed to explore the form of culture that could be introduced to our children, and what qualities of interaction should have to support parents to maintain it to their children (see Figure 5).

Figure 9. Cube exercise and mapping result. The main findings of co-design workshop two (Table 3).

Findings Response

• In this workshop, the participants do not have a strict limit on how many hours of screen time their children should exposed to. Whereas they already encounter technology in their daily lives namely; television (broadcast online stream video, or local TV channels), tablets and

smartphones. Their children are already fascinated with smartphone and tablet.

• Tablet, smartphone and television are the technologies they used on a daily basis.

• Common issues appeared for the four-year-old who is opposes to any request asked by the parents. For the other children younger than four, various issues such as; always needing assistance, ignoring their parents' request, unable to communicate their need, bored with the routines, and short attention span when they do any activities. The four-year-old start to forgetting a lot of Bahasa words, due to the lack of use of Bahasa at home with the parents.

• Activities should be varied, can be adjusted with their age, The parents should keep on communicating with them and consistency is essential for a more significant result.

• Activities between parents and children in both participants were carried out

sometime in the morning, at breakfast time, after pre-school and before bedtime.

• Activities should be natural and open-ended due to limited time slot available on

weekdays, wherein holidays it could be more elaborated.

• Indonesian culture is being introduced mainly through foods, language, story, songs, and prayer.

• Explore simple foods, song, folklore that potentially could be introduced.

• Consistency is essential to introduce the language and cultures. Activities should be divided according to their age development, where are more suitable for their interest and needs.

• Create different activities in human age developmental stages.

• Playdate with other children from similar age group where they can interact with other children with similar Indonesian background so they could have an exposure to the language and cultures unconsciously.

• Discover a way to find and strengthen the communication within the Indonesian communities primarily in the closest areas.

• For both participants, communicating with grandparents and extended families are routinely done on a weekly basis. Whereas they usually travel to the home country yearly or on every other year.

• Discover online/interaction games that could be done while communicating online with the grandparents and the extended family.

• It is challenging for them to find various activities that are suitable for their children where they could introduce their culture while enhancing their children cognitive and language development.

• Consider providing a space where parents can collaborate and share projects with Indonesian communities worldwide.

Table 3. Workshop two: findings and responses.

4.3.2 Synthesising and conclusion

All data gathered from the previous phase were collected and clustered by creating research wall and mapping. Kolko (2012) describe it "sense-making" (see Figure 10).

From this analysis, there are few points to consider when creating a tool or artefact that could support parents in introducing their language and background to their offspring (table 4).

Activities Common Issues and

recurring topics Qualities needed Design opportunity Web-based survey Cultural probes Co-design workshop 1 Co-design workshop 2 Prototypes user test

• Inconsistency • Flexible • Open-ended, personalised activities that they can adapt to their need.

• Should be a tool that they can use in their lifetime. • No one to train the

language with beside the parents with an Indonesian background

• Periodic gathered

activities • Create the need to use Bahasa by gathering activities in the communities such as playdate with children with the same background or

games/activities that could be involve

grandparents/extended families in Indonesia • Flexible screen time • Interactive

• Fun

• Culture-related

• Smartphone, tablet,

television, and computer can be utilised in the activities. • The children were

not responsive to the surrounding when they are using their gadgets when they are playing.

• Short task games • Involvement of

parents

• Analogue activities

• Create milestones where parents can document and archive it to show to their children when they are older for reflection.

• Create analogue activities • Limited resources of

activities that involves Indonesian culture that could be adapt and practise in everyday lives. • Variety activities, which promotes physical and cognitive development • Indonesian culture knowledge database

• Create a space where they can find and adapt the activities to their needs. • Collaborate with other

parents to create new activities or have discussions.

Table 4. common issues, qualities and design opportunities.

Challenge and design opportunity:

> Common problems:

- Inconsistency in teaching or communicate in Bahasa with their children

- There are not enough resources and tools to support various activities that fit every age of human development where parents can take and tailored based their family quality time. - Unsupervised and unlimited screen time could lead to a tantrum, shows or viewing of

>What should be considered:

- Learning a language is like any other skills, it should be practised to achieve a more significant result. It should have continuity, consistency and variety of activities built throughout the children lives. This judgement could be the critical insight into the design ideas development.

- A physical artefact for a keepsake where parents could collect and store their children milestones in their developmental stages, where could be revisited and reflect when the children are growing older.

- Beside physical artefact, a supportive technology-based device is needed for the parents to provide various activities and sources to play with their children during their quality time. Two artefacts should connect with each other in some way. For the children, however, would need iteration of design research on which age is ideal when they could start exploring and operate these technologies.

- Support from the community is essential to ensure that the children have exposure to their parents' ethnic backgrounds along with keeping the commitment of the parents to apply it in their daily lives. This support could be acknowledged in an online or offline format.

- Based on the qualitative data gathered, most of the families rarely have a strict schedule. Therefore, the flexibility of the tools is needed.

- Collective of various activities for children that contain Indonesian cultures and general knowledge could be beneficial for parents to pick up and adjusted to their need.

4.3.3 Sketching and Prototyping

Although sketching and brainstorming of ideas started already in the first phase after the survey, the Development of design ideas began to take shape after synthesising the gathered data from the previous design process (see Figure 11).

Several ideas were discussed with the member of the user group. Even though invitation to he meetings and the link to the group discussions were sent to all the participants from the earlier activities such as co-design session and cultural probes, only four people actively participated. These discussions occurred in a non-formal setting, both offline and online (group chat).

The most prominent idea which fits the requirement of the tools should be in place to help the parents and this can be done by combining a physical artefact such as a keepsake, a website and an

application. The keepsake can be utilised to store an individual’s memory collection and this can be tailored to fit their children’s interest. The website and application will back the parents to find the support in the community and to find, gather and utilise the resources that they can use with their children. In addition to that, at a suitable age, the parents can then create an account for their children so they can have access to their parents’ ‘collection’ and be introduced to the community. Furthermore, the term “Warisan", which means heritage in Bahasa, was chosen as part of the design process

development. This tool should also support the parents and the children during their life cycle (see Figure 12).

Figure 12. Design concepts iteration

The most challenging task is to create activities which fit the precondition of human developmental stages. Due to time and resources, for this thesis project, it will focus on infants and early childhood activities, and this is still preliminary. However, to give an overview of how this tool should be, activities in all the stages of human development will be presented in detail in the following chapter. The

specification will follow Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development. By referring to Erikson's Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development, it examined the process of how an individual develops throughout the life cycle, identity formation and establishing a coherent sense of self (Knight, 2017). The chosen

The idea formation continued to the development of the wireframes of the website and application (Appendix F and G). The discussion about the the physical prototype took place in an informal setting and along with an online discussion, through a wireframing freehand application by InVisionapp. There are suggested points regarding the community and activities page, where also to include a blog for a member to contributes and outdoor activities (see figure 13).

Figure 13. Design concepts iteration: A website and application wireframing

4.3.3.1 Prototype one: Indonesian food recipe puzzle.

Both prototypes will explore what Houde & Hill (2002) described as "role." It was designed to investigate the engagement of toddlers age tree and bellow (the age of the user group) with an idea of a physical artefact and the connection with Indonesia (see Figure14).

Figure 14. Relationship between two prototypes to the model of “what Prototypes prototype” (Houde & Hill; 2002).

The first prototype is a game puzzle activity where the children could match the illustrated wooden square with the one on the cardboard. On the top of the cardboard, illustration of food was presented with an ingredient and method on the back (see Figure 13).

Figure 15. Prototype one; Indonesian food recipe puzzle and user test.

The key learnings from this exercise were how the children reacted to the game. When this game was tested on three children, age 2.7 years old and 1.8 years old on two separate occasions, they were surprisingly interested in the game itself. However, they were not aware of the correlation between the picture on the top and the puzzle. The parents and I needed to engage, get involved in the game and explain it to them so they would understand it from the top. They played with it a couple of time until they lose interest and moved on to other toys. The amount of time they played this game was around five to fifteen minutes.

On the first occasions, there were two children age 2.7 years old and 1.8 years old as participants. The older child was very interested in the prototype and played with it without supervision longer than the younger one. Whereas the younger child only played with the prototype for roughly around five minutes without supervision and then, he moved on to other toys. On the second occasion, two children, aged 2.4 and 1.8 (with the same younger children participate in the first occasion), tested and played with the game. Both of them were playing with the game only when they received extra guidance and they were easily distracted.

The difference lies in the situation and when this game was played. In the first occasion, the children played it after they had a physical activity in the pool outside beforehand. After they took a bath and had a quiet time, they were presented with the game. For the older child, once he started with the puzzle, he was not distracted by any other toys. For the younger children, he was interested at first and played with it for a while and moved back and forth; and when he saw that the older child was still playing it, he became interested again and joined him. Whereas on the second occasion, two children were occupied by the television which was on at that time. Even so, they were interested enough to play with the game; but they were always switching their attention between the prototype and the television. As for the 1.8 years old, his attention span was shorter than both of the older children in both occasions.

4.3.3.1 Prototype two: Indonesian map.

This prototype explored how thoroughly the user group (children age three and bellow), with the story of their extended family in Indonesia. It is not only to introduce them on the geographical location of the country but also to give a pretext for the interaction between the parents and the children.

The second prototype is an Indonesian map with accessories of character and transport for storytelling activity, where the children could match the islands with fluffy puzzle pieces and tell a story about their extended family with characters and transportation pictures (see Figure 16).

Figure 16. Prototype two; Indonesian map and user test.

The essential learning from the activities was how they play with the map and the additional

accessories. In this occasion, two children (age 2.7 years old and 1.8 years old) were playing with the map. The older child managed to match the fluffy puzzle pieces to the island. However, for other accessories (in this case; a plane and a boat), the child utilised them to complete of the puzzle as well when he saw the similar illustrations on the map. He was not able to make a story or pretend play with the rest of the other characters, even with the parents' guidance. As for the younger child, he was not interested in the map, and was only playing with the accessories (the plane and the boat). From this activity, it can be concluded that this activity for this user group should have a focus on one function for each activity, e.g., puzzle, storytelling, physical activity, drawing, or singing. Due to the debate amongst parents regarding screen time (see chapter 2.4.3), activities for children under five should promote the interaction between parents and child, with more focus on analogue play instead of digital. The engagement of the prototype with the storytelling might have a different outcome with children older than 2.7 years old.