5.1.2 Alphabot symbol token accessories
Alphabot’s collection of tangible symbol tokens are laser-cut out of the same, high-quality Baltic Birch wood that the robot’s body is made with. Serifa, a beautiful serifed font created by prominent Swiss typeface designer Adrian Frutiger in 1967, was chosen for its highly legible quality. Formative research by the Children’s Television Workshop on Ghostwriter, pointed to the importance of resisting creative and unusual letter shapes and non-standard orientations when presenting text to children [5]. As Alphabot’s symbols are intended to exist both in the real world as tangible letterforms as well as animated on-screen, research-validated best practices are employed to ensure the system is effective at clearly conveying information to children [4].