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

Design game materials as:
Visual stimulus for exploring
alternatives
perspectives and solutions –
in empathic and playful way.
Boundary object
making sense for all participants –
for shared language-of-design.
DESIGN MA-
TERIALS CAN
BE:
A) Pre-designed
B) Generated
during
the play
Table 6
Visual reference for shared focus of
attention
establishing, maintaining, distracting
or re-establishing it – guiding the
interaction during the gathering.
TO SUPPORT
1) Design
collaboration
Documentation and Reminder
co-constructed user representation
and related discussion – during and
after the co-design gathering
Illustration of the progress
negotiations and ideas – during the
co-design gathering.
Visual indicator for being
in a special game world
a magic circle – by introducing
materials with ‘game’ connotations.
2) Creative
interplay
between
current
practices and
future
opportunities
3) Ideation
Design game materials have many characteristics that are related to the overall objectives and
whether they are predesigned or generated during the play.
to both tangible and intangible methods. Thus, I find it useful in design
games that build on storytelling and performing, whether it is used with
or without any props. This claim does not diminish the value of various
props in co-design. Instead, I want to point out that there are two ways of
performing in design: one with a strong focus on bodily actions and props
and one that is based on verbal storytelling without necessarily employing
any props. Both of them include role immersion, which I find to be
at the core of empathic design and finding a personal viewpoint on the
topic.
When inviting people to contribute to the design through design
games, different types of knowledge become mixed together, resulting
from the way they are used as collaborative sketching material in a similar
manner as Johansson (2005) proposed with regard to video snippets.
This can be described by pointing out the interplay between the four
roles introduced by Schechner (2006, p 225), as was done in section 5.2.
Even though all design games differ in how they bind inputs from vari-
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