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

environments, concept design is a larger phenomenon that may take
place outside product design as well. For example, in the five cases presented
earlier, the main aims of co-design were similar with the purposes
of concept design. These included creating concepts to evoke discussion,
mapping potential design space, collecting insights for coming design
decisions, reaching shared visions, and increasing researchers’ competence
on creative collaboration – not introducing features of the final
design. Regardless of their varying purposes, the cases share the fundamental
character of concept design by being liberated from the demands
of the production. Thus they have more freedom in applying innovative
techniques for seeking holistic and empathic view on users (Keinonen &
Takala 2006, pp 19–28).
2.1.2
Involving several
partners
in
design
process
Like Keinonen and Takala (2006), who write about the many purposes of
concept design, Binder and Brandt (2008) point out that searching what
to design has become part of designers’ tasks. As proposed, this open
starting point gives more room for user studies and explorative methods.
Furthermore, designers’ and researchers’ creativity is not targeted only
towards designing new products, or services but increasingly towards
creating opportunities for creative collaboration among different people
and developing tools that enhance the creativity of others (e.g. Sanders &
Dandavate 1999; Brandt 2006). Binder and Brandt (2008, p 116) describe
the influence this shift has had in design research: “It’s not uncommon
that new design opportunities are sought across organizational and institutional
boundaries. Thus, recent literature address the ways design research
can be organized to involve designers and clients and how findings and results
can be produced and represented.”
The repertoire of methods for participation has focused on both generating
design ideas and interpreting user information in multidisciplinary
teams including also users and other stakeholders (e.g. Buur &
Søndergaard 2000; Westerlund 2009; Johansson 2005). As Binder and
Brandt (2008) state, ethnographic field studies have been one starting
point for collaborative inquiry. For example, Johansson (2005) looks in
his doctoral dissertation Participatory inquiry – Collaborative Design into
how ethnographic field studies can be used in exploratory design sessions
involving users and other stakeholders. As is typical for innovative
methods pointed out by Keinonen (2009), Johansson demonstrates in his
research that exploring what is and envisioning what can be, can be meaningfully
combined in design sessions with various participants.
The interplay between the two has been one of my initial interests as
well, and I will continue studying that through this dissertation. However,
whereas Johansson (2005) looks into how ethnography can contribute
to design and proposes the design games approach as a medium to transform
the snippets from the field studies into a collaborative “sketching
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