Design games as a tool, a mindset and a structure Kirsikka Vaajakallio

3
Experiences that the participants share with each other in the side
of the collaborative story. To grasp on interesting topics and to find
out more about them is the responsibility of the creative secretary
who should be sensitive towards possible design openings.
4
Design openings and novel design concepts which are envisioned
while the story evolves.
4.3.4
Prototyping
design
game
designers
skills
by
exploring
play–qualities
Figure 42 below illustrates the timeline of the design games developed
to guide the collaboration and constructing possibilities within the three
case studies. The process architecture centred on collaboration in two levels:
firstly, tight collaborative relationship between researchers and key
partners from the companies guided the process through a continuous
dialogue; secondly, short-term co-design gatherings with distinct goals
and participants culminated the co-design process by inviting relevant resources
together to understand the wide solution space instead of seeking
a shortcut to the final design, thus often widening the problem area rather
than focusing it. None of the cases ended up with one well-defined design
concept but instead provided seeds for further development projects.
To summarise, the first case provided many insights on seniors although
it didn’t prompt any continuing development project as far as we know 19 .
The second case was established at the same time with the development
project between OPK and their sub-contractor, Palmu Inc. The parallel
projects fed each other so that the case study provided user insights to
the service designers, but the main objectives remained separate. The third
case was parallel to the on-going development project between Palmu Inc.
and their client Itella, providing user insights to their design process. In
addition, potential for further development was seen in ideas generated
during the Storytelling Game. This gave rise to a new project at Itella.
The third case study with Palmu and Itella thus showed a case where
a collaborative design research project can lead to promising outcomes
that can be taken as starting points for the next project. In other words,
concept search may be used to prompt new development projects once
their unrealized potential is recognised.
19 Since the concept development was eventually left outside the scope of the case study, we were
not able to follow possible concept design activities at KONE. Even though we tried to find out
whether any of the concepts were taken further at KONE, it remained unclear for us. We interpreted
the silence and vague answers we got meaning either that there were no follow-up project or they
didn’t share them with us because of their non-disclosure policy.
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