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

Fig. 7
The Value Game combined elements such as game rules, turn-taking, game board, and playing
cards. For instance, well-known characters were provided as playing cards to direct the
discussion on values.
Whose involvement is essential throughout the process, and who can contribute
momentarily? What kind of learning are we after, and who should learn?
These questions are explored and discussed further throughout this dissertation
and especially in relation to the Extreme Design project that followed
the cases presented above.
Conclusions
I have now presented five design research cases that have varied in form and
length as well as in context and participants. Some – for example learning
about co-design that involves children as design partners – have been more
research based, while some have more design-oriented aims like in the last
case that concerned co-designing university. They all shared an interest in
enhancing creative collaboration that focuses on tangible design material
and in using the game as a metaphor (i.e. label) or as practical structure with
a visual look related to games, for instance the rules and tangible game material.
The following table summarises the key findings (Table 1).
One aspect given attention is various relationships between participants
(e.g. users, development team and researchers) indicated in the
above cases. It is rarely possible to clearly point out whose idea something
was if the co-design evolved in a dialogue, as it ideally should do:
someone shares experiences, an opinion etc. with others, the reactions
to that invite further reactions and so on, gradually taking the initial idea
further. However, we can look at who is involved in this design dialogue
and roughly map the roles based on that:
Generating future visions in user – researcher interaction
Creating design proposals within a group of users
Enacting design solutions in designer – design researcher interaction
Seeking design openings within a multidisciplinary group
37