Design games as a tool, a mindset and a structure Kirsikka Vaajakallio
Design games as a tool, a mindset and a structure Kirsikka Vaajakallio
Design games as a tool, a mindset and a structure Kirsikka Vaajakallio
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
addition, the stories described situations <strong>and</strong> incidents where alternative<br />
ways of acting could be introduced by OPK, for example by taking a more<br />
proactive stance when considering people’s changing needs over time.<br />
Since the core team from OPK <strong>and</strong> Palmu took part in the co-design<br />
gathering, mutual learning w<strong>as</strong> immediate. Stories <strong>and</strong> ide<strong>as</strong> were written<br />
down after the session to enable their recall later on. One concern<br />
stated by the designers from Palmu w<strong>as</strong> the way the OPK development<br />
team members seemed to take the user insights <strong>as</strong> truth without a need<br />
for interpretation about what provoked those stories <strong>and</strong> consideration<br />
over how they could – or should – be incorporated to the future services.<br />
Strong commitment <strong>and</strong> emotional responses are often seen <strong>as</strong> the<br />
strength of face-to-face meetings with users. However, for those to<br />
whom user-centred design is new, the complexity of user studies <strong>and</strong><br />
their meaning beyond factual information may be confusing or unclear.<br />
As h<strong>as</strong> been pointed out, the design <strong>games</strong> discussed in this dissertation<br />
build on the idea of user data <strong>as</strong> fragmented glimpses of the users’ world<br />
that needs to be reconstructed into new representations, to make sense<br />
of it in a particular context <strong>and</strong> design process. Even if indirect <strong>and</strong> direct<br />
user involvement is used to bring in the users’ perspectives, they are<br />
not the whole truth to be followed without questioning. The stance taken<br />
by the OPK development team <strong>and</strong> the designers from Palmu may have<br />
resulted from shortcomings in explaining the meanings of user insights<br />
gained through such an innovative method. Hence, I propose that in further<br />
studies more attention should be given to explaining the attitude <strong>and</strong><br />
aims embedded in particular design <strong>games</strong>.<br />
The third c<strong>as</strong>e study w<strong>as</strong> shorter than the two previous ones: the active<br />
collaboration l<strong>as</strong>ted only a couple of weeks. That indicates that there are<br />
opportunities for utilizing co-design gatherings <strong>as</strong> source of inspiration<br />
<strong>and</strong> information also in short-term projects. The main partner w<strong>as</strong> Palmu<br />
Inc., the same design consultancy that w<strong>as</strong> working for OPK in our previous<br />
c<strong>as</strong>e study. Palmu Inc. is “a service design agency which creates innovate<br />
new services <strong>and</strong> improves the current ones.” (Palmu Inc. web pages<br />
14.09.2010). 17<br />
Being the l<strong>as</strong>t of the three c<strong>as</strong>es, the focus for the actual c<strong>as</strong>e w<strong>as</strong> left<br />
open in the beginning of the Extreme <strong>Design</strong> project. The idea w<strong>as</strong> to let<br />
the knowledge from the previous c<strong>as</strong>es influence its direction. This resulted<br />
also from the fact that Palmu did not know their clients <strong>and</strong> their needs<br />
when the Extreme <strong>Design</strong> project began. At the start of the c<strong>as</strong>e study,<br />
Palmu had a project in progress with Itella, a company that delivers mail<br />
4.3.3<br />
C<strong>as</strong>e<br />
Palmu:<br />
Exploring<br />
social<br />
media<br />
<strong>as</strong><br />
source<br />
of<br />
novel<br />
design<br />
openings<br />
17 Palmu Inc. w<strong>as</strong> established in the beginning of 2009. www.palmuinc.fi<br />
156