Value Tokens

These probes aim to challenge participants to think about the value of money in relation or correlation to their values. Experimenting with different interaction experiences and form developments led us to design a set of interactive cards and tokens which were lasercut from different materials and assembled as set for each participating household. Consisting of a small box which included a set of five layered, interactive cards, each card itself contained sandwiched layers which held a one pound coin within its centre. This pound coin could be released or ‘unlocked’ by participants by using one of the different coloured material tokens that were also included in the probe pack. To use the probe pack, we asked participants to follow simple instructions, that began with asking them to write something of value on the back of a token of their choice in order to exchange or release the one pound coin from one of the cards. Each card had a different activity printed on to them which asked participants to do ‘something shared’, ‘something happy’, ‘something useful’ and ‘something special for their household’ with one additional blank card showing the pound coin in the centre which participants could use how they preferred.

These tasks or cards could be used by individuals or by several members of the household or family together, and we left this up to the families to discuss and decide. After each task or activity, the participants were then asked to briefly write down some feedback on the foldout back of each card. They were asked to write what they did (activity), who they shared it with (connection) and what it meant to them (reflection). The design was deployed within each household for two weeks with a short interview upon completion talking through the cards, tokens and activities.