Design for experience: the "Look mama!" experience

In specific cases it can be useful to start product design with defining the experience that the product should evoke, before defining functionality. We illustrate such an approach. It describes the development of an innovative, interactive product that stimulates communication between children aged 4-6 and their parents. Based on user research, a characterisation of the user-product relation and qualitative product characteristics were defined. This formed the starting point for all further design activities. From this, a product concept and design were developed and tested. The final design, a device with a set of 'playing stones' that can be used as sound containers, features innovative interactions; it lacks traditional buttons but instead has tangible, playful controls