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

Fig. 16
R1: “If you would now receive a message, what could be
the situation?”
W: “Some emergency situation.”
R1: “What kind of emergency situation?”
W: “Well e.g. once and a while small children poo into
the swimming pool.”
R1: “How the tool would work?”
W: “It would peep.”
R1: “Let’s imagine that now is that situation.”
W: “I could receive e.g. the number, then I could contact.”
R1: You had the earphone in your tool…”
W: “Yes, it could also come to that, as a call.”
R2: “How it happens now?”
W: “Typically they say through loudspeakers that ‘cleaner
come to cash desk’ …They doesn’t say the reason
through loudspeakers so that customers won’t hear it…
The call could come right to me… Then I wouldn’t need
to go only for checking the situation.”
For researchers (R1 and R2) it was important to have detailed descriptions of the reasons and
functionalities related to the ideas that were generated through asking specific questions, as
the quotations above illustrate.
16 illustrates (e.g. Vaajakallio & Mattelmäki 2007, Ylirisku et al. 2007).
Working in pairs of moderators to improve the quality of drama sessions
is also proposed by Johnston (1998/2005). According to him, facilitators
may adopt complimentary roles in several ways: sharing the leadership,
leading in different skills, assuming different functions, or representing
different communities (ibid. p 84). In the first case, the facilitator is
more active in leading the session, while the rest of the group observe
and intervene only when necessary. Secondly, the facilitators may bring in
complimentary skills, according to which they share the responsibilities.
Thirdly, there may be one facilitator within the group to pose questions
that could be hard for the external facilitator to pose for the group members.
In this case, the inside facilitator can also break the ice by demonstrating
to the others that it is safe to act. (ibid.)
Co-design could also learn more about facilitation from other related
creative approaches, in a way that Johnston (1998/2005) proposes that
community drama could. Although community drama is a unique approach,
it borrows aspects from several theatre-related traditions. To
provide some guidelines in regard to facilitation, Johnston introduces
some related professions such as that of theatre director, drama teacher,
and actor/teacher. According to him, many theatre directors have lately
given more control to the actors in the interpretation of their roles or let
the actors to create their own characters from scratch. Both strategies
underline the uniqueness of a play based on specific actors; with other
groups the play would be different. This view fits nicely with user experience
design approaches that highlight the individual’s desires and needs
77