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210 Socially Intelligent AgentsFigure 25.2. Children, with stars on their bellies, experience the Sneetches StoryRoom. Thecardboard box on the left is the Star-Off machine. The box in the middle, The Toy, has a lighteffector attached to it.Furthermore, stories were more interesting because emotions were more thanwords on a page, they were also acted out. Indeed, these observations suggestthat, at least for our child researchers, perception is sufficient for conveyingfeelings in stories.At the end of our summer 1999 design team workshop (an intense 2 weeklong, 8-hour day experience), we held an open house and invited guests andfamilies to experience our Sneetches StoryRoom. We arranged the visitorsinto pairs of adult and child designers. They entered the room three pairs at atime. While all the children appeared to enjoy exploring the room and makingthings happen, their parents did not always understand what was happening.Furthermore, when they activated many things at once, the room became acacophony, and the story became difficult to follow. We were also pleasantlysurprised by their high level of enthusiasm in guiding their guests through theStoryRoom. Not only did these children wanted to build the story, they wantedto share it with others.Based on observations from our intergenerational collaboration, we createdthe following guidelines for designing attractive and entertaining storytellingenvironments for children:1 Give children the tools to create.2 Let children feel that they can affect and control the story.3 Keep interactions simple.4 Offer ways to help children begin stories.5 Include hints to help children understand the story.6 Make the technology physically attractive to children.Our work continues today on StoryRooms. We are currently developing aStoryKit that enables young children to physically program, or author, their