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

5
The main case, Extreme Design, has been carefully documented
and presented in Chapter 5 to allow the reader to follow my argumentation.
1.2.1
Analyses
of
the
data
This research has a qualitative and explorative nature and the analysis has
been data-based, meaning that there were no pre-existing categories and that,
for example, all the themes I present in Chapter 5 emerged from the data.
In the co-design gatherings that I studied there was always more than one
group of participants working simultaneously around a similar task, meaning
that I obtained data from several similar settings in which different people
participated. The large number of videos provided flexibility when choosing
material into analyses with appropriate quality and allowed comparisons between
the performances guided by me and those guided by others.
I applied interaction analysis (Jordan & Henderson 1995) as analytical
foci to put attention on “the shape of an event, its’ high and low points,
the relaxed and frenzied segments, and the temporal ordering of talk and
nonverbal activity” (ibid., Chapter 6, p 5). The steps towards the analysis
followed the path of first creating a content log with headings and a
brief summary of events, then marking any interesting parts on the log,
organizing group sessions to get potentially significant observations from
other researchers, and finally extending the observations individually by
watching certain segments over and over again. Subsequently, I worked
with Schechner’s (1985; 1988/2003; 2006) performance theory to make
sense of the emerging observations.
I arrived at my conclusions by following this iterative process of analysing
the data but also engaging in interplay between the experiments,
analysis and writing, as the next chapters will demonstrate. The research
was not guided by any predetermined framework; instead, I developed
the Play framework gradually as it influenced the structure of the later
cases. In addition, I have continuously published and lectured to test and
develop my understanding of co-design and design games.
1.3
Outline
of
the
dissertation
This dissertation can be divided roughly into three parts: The first three
chapters illustrate the development of the Play framework through the interplay
between experiments and the related literature. The second part, Chapter
4, presents the implementation of the Play framework in the Extreme
Design project. Thirdly, the framework is further rephrased and discussed
in Chapters 5 and 6 based on gained experiences. The research approach,
described in Chapter 1, has influenced the way I have organized the dissertation
to move from empirical co-design experiments to literature and back to
co-design again. An overview of the individual chapters is given below:
19