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

The cases introduced above followed my research program investigating
different aspects of co-design. Next, I will discuss experiences and learning
from the practical experiments concerning the three core themes
identified as the base of the research program. I will then show how the
cases produced new questions for further consideration and focused my
research more strongly around the design games and wider view on user
involvement in co-design. As will be pointed out below and in the following
chapters, how to organise co-design is not a trivial question but
includes several things that need to be considered, some of them rather
intuitive and implicit, some demanding more explicit treatment.
1.6
Problem area
and
further
considerations
Design collaboration
There are several forms of design collaboration as the examples above indicate.
Since the Situated Make Tools exercises, the following cases demonstrate
how I began to see co-design in wider terms, where direct user
involvement is not necessary but where other stakeholders, designers,
marketing people etc. might prove to be desirable design partners, depending
on the particular contextual aims. In most cases, I have been one
of the co-designers together with other participants. If the researcher
guides the situation too much, there is a risk of preventing the emergence
of unexpected issues. Nevertheless, there are also positive sides for acting
in a double role of a researcher/co-designer, which justifies the involvement.
These include the opportunity to utilise personal experiences, as
well as pursuing the aims of the study by stimulating the discussion during
co-design. Sometimes researchers form a part of the user group, as in
the case of “Designing University”, where the researchers were one possible
user group of the Design Factory. Hence, researchers may present
an important user perspective in line with other involved users. Different
roles and strategies in co-design gatherings are examined later on in this
dissertation. Especially the possibilities of design games in facilitating
progress in co-design are given more attention in the following chapters.
Summaries of different cases and design partners in them. It is important to notice that also in
those cases where the researchers were not involved in the actual co-design gatherings as codesigners
they had produced the design material that directs and frames the design.
Table 1
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