Research Of Children Symbol Game Design Based On Natural Interface

The population of children in China reached 274 million till 2014. With the full implementation of the "two-child" policy, the population growth is expected to reach 6% to 7% in 2016. The family culture and "6+1" family structure determine that children products will account for a significant part of the family consumption. In addition, China is the world’s largest toy exporter, taking up 75% of the international toy. Consequently, China’s toy market is characterized by a large scale and substantial potential.Symbolic play is the main type of game for preschoolers, and it plays a vital role in the all-round development of children. The symbolic toy is a carrier of the symbolic play. Although the Chinese market is inundated with various symbolic toys, most are simple and less innovative "model toy", which is less competitive when compared with the "interactive toy" and "digital game" that are quite interesting and well-received among children.NUI (Natural Interface or Natural User Interface) is a brand-new interactive means after GUI, and it emphasizes on the multi-sense channel and naturalness of the interactive process. Moreover, it is characterized by low learning cost, high authenticity, abundant sense judgment and good robustness, etc. which are especially meaningful for the "symbolic toy". Consequently, an interesting "symbolic toy" which is easy to learn is designed with NUI method.In the theoretical research, analysis is conducted for the "symbolic play", "symbolic toy" and "NUI". According to the analysis of these theories, the application of NUI in the symbolic toy is put forward in the third chapter, and it is also applied to "daddy’s breakfast" case practice in the fourth chapter."Daddy’s breakfast" is a symbolic toy in the form of "hardware +software", and the carrier of the software is iPad. The hardware is a set of kitchen ware model with "recognizable touch point group". Children can conduct vivid cooking on iPad interface with all kinds of kitchen ware models for their daddy. The game combines the advantages of the material prop and graphic interface, characterized by real operational sense, abundant interactive feedback, higher enjoyment, comprehensive sense judgment and easy grasp, etc.Eventually, methods of applying NUI to the design of symbolic toy are summarized, and defects of the research and expectations of the paper are illustrated.