Scientific publications
Lieselotte van Leeuwen, Diane Westwoord, Mathieu Gielen (2010) Found in translation: design for play - inspiration from psychology. Meeting of the Northern league of developmental psychologists,University of Northumbria, Newcastle (UK) 23/02/2010. Poster presentation, unpublished
This poster summarizes the use of some psychological concepts in students' design projects, connecting the knowledge to the object-driven perspectives of designers and demonstrating the link between design questions, design ideas and resulting research questions.Download:
Poster 
Mathieu Gielen (2010) Essential concepts in toy design education: aimlessness, empathy and play value. International Journal of Arts and Technology, 3:1 4-16.
This paper opens the special issue on 'Toy Design Education: Teaching How to Design the Tools for Play' of which the author was also the guest editor. It gives an overview of the main insights gained from ten years of lecturing "design for children's play and learning" and describes methods and techniques to address the concepts that have proven to be hardest to understand for students.Download:
Paper
Andrea Leal Penados, Mathieu Gielen, Pieter Jan Stappers, Tinus Jongert (2009) Get Up and Move: An Interactive Cuddly Toy that Stimulates Physical Activity. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 14:2. DOI 10.1007/s00779-009-0270-3
This paper describes the development of a toy that measures prolonged sedentary behaviour in children and stimulates them to engage in physically active play. It describes the theoretic framework used for achieving behaviour change (the i-change model) as a base for the design and testing of a prototype and evaluates the outcomes of first tests with special attention to social play.
Andrea Leal Penados, Mathieu Gielen, Pieter Jan Stappers, Tinus Jongert Get Up and Move: An Interactive Toy that Measures (In)Activity and Stimulates Physical Activity. Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Design for Social Interaction through Physical Play, in conjunction with the International Conference on Fun and Games. Eindhoven, 2008.
This paper describes the development of a toy that measures prolonged sedentary behaviour in children and stimulates them to engage in physically active play. It sums up research about overweight in children and the health risks involved, describes the theoretic framework used for achieving behaviour change (the i-change model) and the design and testing of a prototype. Download:
Paper
Gielen, Mathieu A. (2008) Exploring the child's mind - Contextmapping research with children Digital Creativity, 19:3, 174-184.
This paper describes the necessity of developing research methods to create insight in children's worlds of experience. Some examples illustrate the potential and the challenges involved.Download link:
Informaworld website
Download draft version: Paper
Gielen, M.A. Play, toys and disabilities: The Bio-approach to designing play objects for children with various abilities. 4th International Toy Research Association world congress, 2005 (published 2008).
This paper gives an overview of the main characteristics of our approach to designing playful objects for children with physical impairments and for joint use by children with various abilities. It gives six examples that illustrate various aspects of the approach.Download:
Paper
Gielen, M.A.: What's on a childs mind: Contextmapping research for designer's inspiration. Ludic Engagement Designs For All conference, 2007.
This paper describes the necessity of developing research methods to create insight in children's worlds of experience. Existing contextmapping techniques can be adapted to suit the characteristics of children and fit the very first phase of product development, before product domains are identified.Download:
Paper
Brederode, B., Markopoulos, P., Gielen, M., Vermeeren, A., Ridder, H. de: pOwerball: The design of a novel mixed-reality game for children with mixed abilities Interaction Design & Children conference 2005.
This paper describes the development of a computer-based table top game for use by children with and without disabilities, supporting social interactions rather than competition. It also describes methodological aspects of children's participation in this design process.Download:
Paper
Weerdesteijn, J.M.W., Desmet, P.M.A., Gielen, M.A. (2005) Moving design. The Design Journal, volume 8, issue 1 (2005) p. 28-40.
This article is about a series of objects that, through their movements, elicit emotional responses in children aged 4-5 years old in gymnastics classes. It gives a theoretical framework, describes the design of objects and also describes the evaluation of these objects with children.Download:
Paper
Weerdesteijn, J.M.W., Gielen, M.A., Desmet, P.M.A. (2004) Playing with body language and emotions. International Council for Children's Play - World Play Conference 2004.
This paper describes validation and the assessment of pedagogic value of the 'emotion objects' described in the previous paper.Download:
Paper
Gielen, M.A., Hekkert, P., Ooy, C.M. van (1997) Problem restructuring as a key to a new solution space: a sample project in the field of toy design for disabled children. The Design Journal, volume 1, issue 1 (1997) p. 12-23.
This article describes how using abilities instead of disabilities helps to discover new opportunities for products for handicapped and non-handicapped children.Download:
Paper
Other publications
Mathieu Gielen Sugar-cane on the savannah - The water pump and what came of it. in: M.C.A. van der Sanden (2007): You can't just blame the crocodile - Delft engineers travel into sustainability. TU Delft, p.132-145. ISBN 9789079347018.
This book describes various contributions of Delft engineers to sustainable development in developing countries. The chapter written by me describes a journey undertaken in 2007 to a hand pump project in Kibwezi, Kenya, in which I was involved in 1993. It focuses on the changing needs of people, their search for knowledge and the changing demands on the products they use, such as water pumps. Download:
Paper
Abbie Vanhoutte, Joost Prins en Mathieu Gielen WhirlPower: Een concept voor (inter)actieve speelplekken. Product, jaargang 15, nr 3 (2007)p.6-8
This paper in Dutch presents the graduation work of Abbie Vanhoutte. The focus of the project was to stimulate children to play outside and be more physically active. It describes how a playground object was designed in which children use their force to generate electric power and at the same time control a large outdoor computer game.Download:
Paper
Gielen, M.A., Oorschot, J.M.C. van, Bergh, M.P. van den (2003) Onbeperkt spelen - speelgoed ontwerpen voor kinderen met een handicap. in: Spaai, G. et.al. (2003) Vijftig jaar NSDSK: met een knipoog naar de toekomst. Lemma, Utrecht, p93-100.
This paper in Dutch describes our approach to designing toys for children with physical impairments and draws a comparison to designing for deaf and hearing-impaired children, through two example projects.Download:
Paper
Gielen, M.A., Haagsman, E. (2003) Werk in uitvoering - twintig jaar samenwerking Bio-IO. Bio-Kinderrevalidatie, Arnhem, 2003.
This booklet gives an overview of 30 projects in which daily life aids and toys for disabled children's are designed. The projects have been carried out by Stichting Bio-Kinderrevalidatie and the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of Delft UT in the last twenty years.
