Mapit: Let's play again!
Mapit is an interactive board capable of bringing together 2 children at a distance,
to play, learn and communicate in real time.
Mapit was born during the pandemic, where we had been isolated for over 9 months. We took the challenge of improving the situation for children, since unlike us, they don't have a way to stay connected without a screen (which is harmful at their age) or with an adult as a channel, which puts their social skills at risk. affecting their personalities, especially those who do not live with other children.
This is how we created Mapit, an interactive and analog board for role-playing games, capable of uniting 2 children from a distance, who will be able to play and communicate in real time, regardless of whether they are in different parts of the planet.
It's very simple and low-tech to keep the product accessible and let creativity guide the game. It has interchangeable maps and 2 magnetic pieces to attach figures freely.
The system is reciprocal, when the figure with CMOS sensor moves from the Mapit 1 board, it sends the position to Mapit 2, which receives the coordinates and replicates the movement in real time thanks to an XY mechanism (just like a 3D printer). ), and vice versa.
It promotes role play and improves developmental milestones; such as having conversations with their peers, formulating sentences, vocabulary, identifying friends by voice, imitating sounds, empathizing, etc.
Mapit, in addition to being a tool for learning and developing social skills, will allow children to feel close to each other, at a time that even for us adults is very hard.
Team project with Alfredo Varela and Sebastián Camacho.
Watch trailer:
Presentation at "The INDEX Project: Problem? Solution!":
The board
The system is reciprocal, when the figure with CMOS sensor moves from the Mapit 1 board, it sends the position to Mapit 2, which receives the coordinates and replicates the movement in real time thanks to an XY mechanism (just like a 3D printer). ), and vice versa.
The easiest way to understand it is thinking of 2 computer's mice, one in each house. When I move my mouse, you see my pointer moving at your screen– when you move your mouse, I see your pointer at mine
Process
We built many prototypes, from paper to actual components, in order to validate our hypothesis with children in every step of the design process. After many iterations, we built our final functional prototype, through which Max and Raimundo were able to play together.
Hypothesis validation:
Impact: Learning by Playing
Mapit provides experiences and actions very similar to psychopedagogical activities that are carried out during their school years with the purpose of developing social skills.
Essential activities for the development of social skills in children observed in Mapit, according to educational psychologists and ministry:
Have conversations with your peers
Empathize
Self control
Stimulate the construction of sentences
Identify our friends by voice
Direct experiences
Mock
Develop stories
Wait your turn
Nonverbal language
Awards and project traction
Mapit has had several nominations in foregin design fairs, including the Index Awards 2021 as speaker, Diseño Responde by INDEX 2021, Bienal de Diseño en Madrid 2021, Antenna Conference at Dutch Design Week 2020, UC Davis + UDD Technology conference and funding from Impacto Emprendedor by Banco de Chile.