Abstract
Encouraging spontaneous creativity is an on-going quest in design. Play embodies this. This paper builds on the concept of “serious play” as a design strategy for creating new and innovative ideas. It discusses a qualitative study involving six teams of designers, each generating initial concepts for wearable and interactive kinetic devices. It describes the playful interactions that emerged as a common strategy for their collaborative and creative ideation practices. It contributes features that further clarify the nature of serious play in relation to humour, role-playing scenarios, gestures, and multi-sensory involvement.
Keywords
collaborative design processes; humour; role-playing scenarios; gestures; multisensory explorations
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.235
Citation
Frankel, L., and Hrinivich, E. (2016) Serious Play Strategies in the Design of Kinetic and Wearable Devices, in Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Future Focused Thinking - DRS International Conference 2016, 27 - 30 June, Brighton, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.235
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Serious Play Strategies in the Design of Kinetic and Wearable Devices
Encouraging spontaneous creativity is an on-going quest in design. Play embodies this. This paper builds on the concept of “serious play” as a design strategy for creating new and innovative ideas. It discusses a qualitative study involving six teams of designers, each generating initial concepts for wearable and interactive kinetic devices. It describes the playful interactions that emerged as a common strategy for their collaborative and creative ideation practices. It contributes features that further clarify the nature of serious play in relation to humour, role-playing scenarios, gestures, and multi-sensory involvement.