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

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sign games. Three design games are described for studying playqualities in co-design: Project Planning Game that was utilised to establish a shared project vision; Character Game that aimed at evoking empathic mindset through role-playing; and Storytelling Game that emphasised the user’s point of view in collectively created narratives. 5 Play-qualities in co-design gatherings – design game designer’s perspective: Chapter 5 will take four themes into closer examination to pinpoint how the Play framework was utilised in Extreme Design. Examples from my accounts are provided to illustrate my points of: shared focus of attention, leaving visual traces, design games as tools for binding inputs from various people, and transporting participants into another world. In the end, I will propose some revisions to the Play framework based on, for instance, increased understanding of the roles of design games’ materials and of the meaning of game rules in co-design gatherings. 6 Play framework for co-design: The final chapter summarises the learning from the previous chapters in the form of the Play framework. At this point, I will define design games in relation to the Play framework. The Play framework illustrates design games as a tool, a mindset, and a structure. The chapter discusses the elements and play-qualities of the Play framework in relation to organising codesign guided by design games. I will also look back on my research journey and reflect upon my research aims and approach, and I will offer some suggestions for future research. Finally, I will conclude with the main points made in this dissertation. 1.4 Inspiration The research described in this dissertation has been strongly influenced by a series of exercises called Situated Make Tools conducted during the Active@work project at the University of Art and Design Helsinki (currently Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Design) in the years 2004–2006. The overall aim of the project was to utilize user-centred design and co-design approaches highlighting empathic understanding, in order to develop concepts that support individual workers’ (age 55+) sustainable wellbeing at work and motivation to work longer (see more, e.g. Vaajakallio & Mattelmäki 2007). Make Tools, introduced by Sanders and Dandavate (1999), were applied in the midst of ageing workers (cleaners, janitors and technical maintenance staff ) work to combine observational studies and contextual idea generation. Hence the name Situated Make Tools. 21
The observational part aimed at establishing a view into the normal work practices to support broader design aims of the project, whereas the Situated Make Tools focused on generating design ideas expressed in physical, narrative and acted-out formats and developing insights into the workers’ needs, desires and attitudes in relation to digital information and communication technologies. The exercise had two main objectives: 1) to explore how real-action context triggers and grounds concept design; and 2) to amplify worker’s creativity through tangible Make Tools and a contextual approach. Let me give an example from one of the Situated Make Tools sessions to illustrate the method: Three persons are gathered around a table in the janitor’s room in a school in Helsinki: a janitor and two design researchers 1 . The janitor explains his typical use of mobile technology while researchers ask clarifying questions. Soon the janitor is encouraged to build the mobile device of his dreams, that could improve his wellbeing during the work day, from the Make Tools on the table. The design material includes a variety of three-dimensional blocks covered with a fabric attachable with Velcro stickers to allow easy configurations with pieces that mimic buttons and displays. The janitor starts to play with the materials and ends up building a device with a few buttons and a camera; he cannot explicate their meanings yet, but the researchers expect that the functions will become clear once they start the Situated Make Tools exercise. After a short video shadowing, the researchers see something that evoke their curiosity and interrupt the activity. They ask the janitor what happened and how it could have been done differently. The janitor tells about the incident with one of the toilets and describes the flow of tasks needed to handle it. After his verbal illustration, he is encouraged to enact the situation anew – this time with the dream device (Figure 1). Altogether six similar exercises were conducted and through analyses some patterns were identified in the way sessions progressed and in the way the contextual setting and the Make Tools influenced idea generation. The findings are connected to the overall structure of the co-design gatherings that took place in the midst of ageing workers working day. The key findings are presented in detail elsewhere 2 . I will next introduce the three main themes that have been explored further in the following chapters. 1 All the observations and Situated Make Tools exercises were conducted by me and my colleague Salu Ylirisku. 22
Page 1 and 2: 5mm Design games as a tool, a minds
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are intertwined: since the stage is
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ative was a story about an archaeol
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sign partners are not professional
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as inspiration and empathic underst
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Fig.17 In this dissertation, when I
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The selection of props is relevant
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enhancing the creativity of ordinar
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Chapter 3 Diving into games, play a
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Design games: As a research tool. F
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Like concept design games organizat
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(2000) have proposed a technique ca
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96 methods for this category typica
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designing involves agreement-making
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about qualities, but instead focus
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utilized card based approaches in s
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with someone who is employed by the
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size and amount of video-cards can
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ut not be overwhelming, and so fort
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Common qualities for all design gam
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or revelations may emerge. These in
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ing the introduction speech, consid
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“In one case games are systematic
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ut it still has all the essential c
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According to Caillois (1961, p 5),
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as artistic events, many of them sh
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e-invention: betwixt and between. I
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It could be claimed that the notion
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The critique that Ehn and Sjögren
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emained the same, the players have
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materials. As such, design game is
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This chapter discusses how the Play
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(discussed in pages 94-96); in that
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Fig. 31 The phases are partly overl
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Since the approach emphasis on desi
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4.3 The three cases: Seeking for ne
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methods as well. In the Project Pla
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The methods placed under different
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The difficulties in encouraging par
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Some of the personal discoveries ma
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whereas in the first time the metho
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out-of-box thinking in co-design. I
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services. The Extreme Design case s
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3 Experiences that the participants
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As was illustrated, the development
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4.4 The fun of playing Fig. 43 Desi
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Fig. 45 A sequence of the game: Nin
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which the turn to introduce a scena
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a radio play by taking the characte
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4.5 Between a process overview and
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This chapter discards the chronolog
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the places of the cards, and throug
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5.2 Leaving visual traces: material
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happen in the magic circle that is
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action in the Character Game, a spe
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presented earlier, we may analyse t
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words, everyone had mixed roles as
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simultaneously. The emphasis given
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During the design games, the discus
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The notion that people are easily c
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Fig. 58 Participants started to go
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and one from YIT, referred as Playe
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5.3.8 Insights through role-play On
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Player 4: “I have my mobile phone
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As has been mentioned previously, r
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Like Hannu and Nina, who began joki
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Planning Game, mainly utilised desi
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dependent from the overall applicat
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ous people and what information is
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epresentations such as co-construct
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Whereas metaphors are useful in gui
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framework, this theoretical backgro
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6.1.1 Design games as a tool As Kei
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ery design researcher designs an ap
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printouts given to the participants
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The purpose of role-immersion, for
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6.2.1 Reflection on research aims I
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1 2 3 The Project Planning Game str
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the design purposes, but, since I w
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As has been discussed in relation t
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Fulton Suri, J. (2003). Empathic de
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Sanders, E.B.-N. (2002). From User-
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Design games as a tool, a mindset and a structure Kirsikka Vaajakallio

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