Co-Creating Space: Transforming Paediatric Hospital Play Through Interactive HCI Technologies

This project followed a rigorous, human-centred design process, grounded in consultation with those closest to the experience, including children, families, the Starlight Captains and staff.

It began with a discovery phase, which included interviews with Starlight’s management team to understand priorities, constraints, and opportunities for screen-free, technology-enabled, generative play in a clinical setting.

Drawing on co-design methodologies, the team facilitated a multi-stakeholder workshop with children, families, and Starlight Captains to explore making materials and technologies. Participants trialled prototyping activities and shared feedback on how engaged they were, how accessible the activities felt, and whether they met infection-control requirements.

The co-creative engagement was then delivered over two weeks at Monash Children’s Hospital, transforming the Starlight Express Room into an immersive, space-themed environment. Using tactile, screen-free HCI technologies, such as inductive LEDs, air-dry clay, and 3D-printed structures, children created interactive aliens, planets, galaxies, and rocket ships. The children chose where and how to exhibit their work, fostering a sense of agency and ownership.

Based on real-time observations and staff feedback, a semi-autonomous robot track was introduced midway through the program, to extend the environment’s play potential, demonstrating the project’s responsive design approach.

The program sought to lower barriers to technology-enabled making within a healthcare setting while fostering greater emotional engagement and creative expression among participants. The materials, activities, spatial layout, and task sequencing were carefully considered to accommodate diverse cognitive, emotional, and physical needs while scaffolding inclusive and joyful engagement.

The project was co-led by Monash University researchers and delivered in close partnership with the Starlight staff, resulting in the development of a replicable strategy for inclusive, technology-enabled co-creation in paediatric healthcare.

In contrast to conventional screen-based distractions, this project exemplifies how design can reimagine paediatric hospital experiences through technology-enabled generative play and co-creation.

This initiative exemplifies design excellence through its integration of inclusive HCI technologies and participatory healthcare practices.

This project was underpinned by a rigorous and participatory person-centred design process, co-led by Monash University researchers and the Starlight Children’s Foundation. By grounding the project in the lived experiences of children receiving care, their families, and clinical support staff, the team developed a model for embedding interactive, technology-enabled making in hospital infrastructure.

Importantly, the design strategy evolved responsively through iterative prototyping and real-time observation, enabling both user empowerment and organisational learning. All materials and technologies, such as inductive LED circuits, air-dry clay, and reusable components, were selected for their accessibility, safety, and low environmental impact.

The installation was designed to support inclusive, screen-free, sensory play that accommodated diverse cognitive, physical, and emotional needs. The spatial layout, sensory cues, and sequencing of activities were carefully choreographed to avoid overstimulation and encourage self-directed creativity.

A reflective debrief with the Starlight team confirmed the program’s effectiveness, laying the groundwork for the design strategy’s rollouts across Starlight Express Rooms state and nationwide.

This design strategy serves as a transferable model for embedding creative HCI experiences into paediatric hospital settings, with the potential to impact thousands of patients and their families nationally.

This project sets a new benchmark for a co-creation design strategy in paediatric healthcare settings by reimagining technology not as a tool for distraction, but as a medium for creation, connection and empowerment.

This work represents the first known use of low-cost, wireless HCI maker technologies, within an infection-controlled hospital environment, co-designed with and for children. Its innovation lies not just in the tools, but in the strategic deployment of these tools to foster agency, narrative-building, and emotional safety.

The innovative use of wireless inductive LEDs, air-dry conductive materials, and 3D-printed space-themed frames allowed children to light, animate, and personalise their creations. In response to participant feedback, a semi-autonomous robot track was introduced mid-project to extend the interactive play experience, highlighting the program’s adaptive and user-responsive design approach.

These speculative technologies were carefully integrated into a system that was both infection-safe and emotionally resonant, transforming a hospital playroom into a space of creation and collaboration. Importantly, the project reframed wellbeing as something co-created rather than delivered, inviting children to become designers, builders, and curators of their own experiences.

The model is scalable, cost-effective, and highly adaptable, offering significant potential for replication across the nine Australian Starlight Express Rooms and broader child-focused healthcare contexts.

By blending digital fabrication, interactive design, and therapeutic play, this project introduces a future-focused paradigm for socially impactful, technology-enabled healthcare experiences.

The initiative reached over 150 children during the two-week deployment period, leading to a 47% increase in visits to the Starlight Express Room.

The program sparked repeat visits, peer-to-peer learning, and collaborative engagement, evidenced through daily observation by staff. Families frequently returned to see how the environment had evolved, often commenting on the joy and wonder it inspired.

The power of interactive, screen-free technologies emerged through moments of transformation. One child (aged approximately 6–8) initially declined to participate, but after being handed an inductive coil wand and seeing how a previously made alien lit up, her reaction immediately changed to, “I really want to make an alien!”. These moments reflect a shift in children’s interest from passive entertainment to active, meaningful involvement.

Impact was assessed through qualitative methods including daily logs and structured feedback from Starlight Captains and the Starlight administrative staff. Captains and staff reported an observable increase in child engagement in the co-created, space-themed environment, particularly during a school holiday period.

Crucially, this work reshaped staff perceptions of interactive technology, from a screen-based distraction to an empowering, collaborative tool. Its influence extends beyond this installation, offering a compelling case for embedding creative, design-led, participatory experiences in hospital settings.