In and out domains. Playful principles to in-form urban solutions

The implementation of games in architecture and urban planning has a long history since the 1960s and is still a preferential tool to foster public participation and address contemporary spatial – and social - conflicts within the urban fabric. Moreover, in the last decade, we have seen the rise of urban play as a tool for community building, and city-making and Western society is actively focusing on play/playfulness – together with ludic dynamics and mechanics - as an applied methodology to deal with complex challenges, and deeper comprehend emergent situations. In this paper, we aim to initiate a dialogue between game scholars and architects through the use of the PLEX/CIVIC framework. Like many creative professions, we believe that architectural practice may benefit significantly from having more design methodologies at hand, thus improving lateral thinking. We aim at providing new conceptual and operative tools to discuss and reflect on how games facilitate long-term planning processes and help to solve migration issues, allowing citizens themselves to take their responsibility and contribute to durable solutions

Designing Inclusive Playscapes Across Sensorial + Socio-Spatial Boundaries

Our emotional experience in public environments is considered to be superficial, although their configurations impact how well we can see, hear, move around, and interact in them daily. ‘Lonely, but not alone’ describes many of today’s urban dwellers. For some people, participation in civic life can be challenging, especially since the barriers (physical, psychological, etc.) faced by some are not always apparent to others, even to designers. This Major Research Project explores the relationship between the level of playfulness expressed in an urban space and user experience. Along with case study investigations and the Delphi method, 42 citizens (estimated to be 21 years of age or older) participated via interviews in Toronto, Canada. An urban design framework of 64 playful design features called The Multi-Playscape Toolkit, which can be used by urban designers and architects, has been developed and now contributes to the knowledge base. Using the Toronto context, recommendations are provided to promote more urban playfulness, more lenient policymaking, and more inclusive design practices in our public spaces

Toolkits, cards and games–a review of analogue tools for collaborative ideation

Analogue tools offer distinct benefits for collaborative design ideation and can take a variety of tailored forms including card decks, templates, toys and board games. However, owing to the disparate and multidisciplinary sources of these tools, there is currently no easy way to gain a coherent view of the tool landscape. To resolve this, we conducted a survey of analogue ideation tools within the design and HCI literatures, and within commercial practice. Of 3,395 results, 76 met the inclusion criteria. The resulting collection is presented and classified according to 10 descriptors including a novel taxonomy for distinguishing 7 tool types (methods, prompts, components, concepts, stories, embodiment, and construction). We also discuss gaps and opportunities for future tool development in inclusivity, cultural-tailoring and embodiment. Our aim is to help designers and design teams more fluently select, customize, critique, analyse and/or build tools to support collaborative designerly inquiry

Do Learners’ Characteristics Matter? An Exploration of Mobile-learning Adoption in Self-directed Learning

This paper aims to identify individual characteristics that motivate learners to use mobile-learning. It sheds light on our current knowledge by a) examining an m-learning adoption model which accounts for learners’ characteristics (learning style and personal innovativeness) in addition to previously studied mobile platform characteristics and b) considering the context in which learning occurs (formal and informal). A framework has been introduced and empirically tested. Results suggest that individuals’ learning style and perceived playfulness influence m-learning usage in both learning situations; while performance expectancy and personal innovativeness are only influential in specific learning contexts. This study highlights the role of learners’ characteristics in m-learning adoption and emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between various types of m-learning. This multi-disciplinary research enriches m-learning literature and offers practical implications for educators using mobile technologies as well as developers of virtual learning platforms

Playability of serious games in information literacy : the findings of the European project NAVIGATE

The article deals with the playability of serious games in information literacy applied by academic libraries and university departments in Library and Information Sciences in the training sessions with students. Is it possible for these games to be more playful and what is path we must follow to achieve this goal? In the literature review on the concepts of playfulness/gamefulness we are focusing on two opposite sides of a spectrum presented by Roger Caillois: Paidia (or playing; for pure joy, without any goals) and Ludus (or gaming; based on rules and competition). The author’s view is that the games can be at either end or somewhere in the middle (Caillois & Barash, 2001). We have a hypothesis that the serious games in information literacy can never be only playful but if they contain a higher level of playability it will be easier for the students to achieve the learning objectives set by the university teachers and librarians. In the framework of the European project NAVIGATE – Information Literacy: A Gamebased Learning Approach for Avoiding Fake Content (https://navigateproject.eu) 70 games used for teaching information literacy in academic libraries and programs were identified and evaluated. We have selected among them 20 best examples of such games and ranked them according to the following criteria: Playability, Lastability, Engagement, User Interface, and Storytelling. An interactive database (https://www.navigateproject.eu/navigamesearch-tool/) was created in order to visualize the list and the categories (the NaviGAMESearcher). Taking into account the results of the evaluation of the top information literacy games and the two original digital games developed within the project (Information Trap Manager and the Navigator) we analyzed where are these games located on the scale of playfulness versus gamefulness and what is the correlation between the level of playability of these games and the students’ achievements. The further steps for evaluation of information literacy games according to the Playful Experiences (PLEX) framework were also defined in the article

Co-designing Cards on Social Issues for Creating Educational Games

This paper presents a participatory methodology to design cards on social issues with the purpose to democratise knowledge among co-designers on the learning content of educational games. Situated on the topic of everyday sexism, the methodology has been developed through an iterative process involving two collaborative workshops, two iterations of card design and a feedback survey. Extracting findings from the workshops and the feedback gathered on the co- designed cards, this paper presents insights that could be used to inform similar studies using cards to inspire and foster reflection on social issues

Using games as learning tools for design research planning

Designers are required to understand human behavior and people’s needs in order to design solutions. According to Muratovsky (2015), society today demands designers to not only design products and communications, but also a system for living. The definition of design is changing from a craft-oriented profession where the emphasis is on individual creativity and commerce, to a discipline that is robust and committed to conceptualization, configuration, and the implementation of new ideas (Muratovsky, 2015). Therefore, the current demands become the reason cross-disciplinary studies is a required skill for designers (Muratovsky, 2015). In order to broaden their knowledge, designers need to become strategic planners and thinkers who can work across disciplines. In order to meet the current demands for designers to become strategic planners, the designer needs to find a way of improving the design research planning process. Based on the author’s experience and observations, novice designers or design students found difficulties when they plan to design research in professional and academic contexts on their teams. It seems that they often forget the various methods, theories, or tools about design methods that should be used for the research. To solve these issues, games could convey a solution that helps designers to understand the whole process of design research. Games can be used for designers as an activity to learn the planning design research experimenting method by knowing what is a better plan in a particular case. Design games enable design actions to be studied in a manipulable and well-bounded environment that creates situations similar to real-life situations (Habraken & Gross, as cited in Vaajakallio, 2012). Games can be used as a tool or medium in a cross-disciplinary team for having engaging discussion and collaboration process. This thesis explores how to create games that help the designer to plan research in order to guide designers to understand better the design research context. This knowledge can help designers to expand their emphasis based on individual creativity towards conceptualization, configuration, and implementation of new ideas. The outcome of this thesis is games that help designers to plan design research

Playfulness and Large-scale Interactive Projections in Public Space

In this paper we present our perspective on the role of playfulness regarding large scale, interactive floor and façade projections in urban public space. We start with a model to identify the key elements and their interplay within this experience design space. This model will develop a deeper understanding of the design space in order to act as being a conceptual tool for creating interactive projects. We discuss the potential of playful projects to reconfigure public space in terms of the performative and motivational aspects of play. We conclude with our findings from observing playful projects built or supported by our research team

Supporting improvised games for young people in public spaces

PhD ThesisResearchers looking at technologically mediated play and games have explored how games can be taken away from the computer screen and played in outdoor spaces. This has resulted in new pervasive games that benefit from the opportunities for rich social and physical interaction in new mobile contexts. However, we have only just begun to explore these opportunities; game designs should bring young people together in these new contexts in play that is appropriate, meaningful, and can be enjoyed on their own mobile devices. The research in this thesis explores how game designers and interaction designers can design more playful mobile games for young people that can be played together in public spaces. This work draws upon a research through design approach that has been informed by the researcher’s own practice of game design and working co-creatively with custodians of public spaces. The contributions are based on the analysis of empirical data collected from two case studies in a community library and a country house, while additionally drawing upon three further game designs made in collaborations with other partners. This work contributes a game design framework that provides an approach, a step by step method, guidelines and a software library for making mobile games with more open, spontaneous, and improvised styles of play. The mobile games are designed with and based on a simplistic game system that presents digital playing cards to provide the game structure and bound play, while the mobile device is also used to configure the play space and sustain play. The intention is to provide designers with a practical and evidence-based approach to designing digital games for new mobile contexts. This work will appeal to game designers who are motivated by an interest in play and playfulness that will resonate with our childhood memories of play.UK AHRC KE Hub for the Creative Economy (ref: AH/J005150/1 Creative Exchange

The Meaning of Playfulness: A Review of the Contemporary Definitions of the Concept across Disciplines.

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