Abstract
There is a growing interest in the new design field, play design. By applying qualities from play, play design can help create opportunities to meet an unknown future with curiosity, empowering designers to make decisions and to keep a shared hope. As a fundamental aspect of human existence, play has been a source of expression, social interaction, and transformative growth across various cultures for thousands of years. Play design can connect and transform us to keep imagining and reimagining the future - together. In this theme track we explore the transformative power of play and how play design and designers can sparkle, initiate and support us imagining together. With a particular focus on the engagement and participation of the designers´ hands, bodies and their ability to amplify collective imagination, we emphasize the role of imagination, wonder, curiosity, joy, teasing and surprise in the design process as well as in the resulting products, services, and systems we create. The theme track will be guided by questions like: How can play design spark imagination? How can play design trigger ways of imagining together? How can play design trigger ways of transforming? How can play design connect us during transformation? Papers about play design as initiating transformation through imagination can be related to a range of arenas: Industry processes, services and products; public services and developments within healthcare or urban initiatives; cultural and tourism experiences; educational informal and formal learning; toy, game and playground products.
Keywords
play, learning, interdiciplonarity, design field
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.141
Citation
Skovbjerg, H.M., Kinch, S., Gudiksen, S., Sumartojo, S., Grocott, L., and Macklin, C. (2024) Play Design: Initiating transformation through Imagination, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.141
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Play Design: Initiating transformation through Imagination
There is a growing interest in the new design field, play design. By applying qualities from play, play design can help create opportunities to meet an unknown future with curiosity, empowering designers to make decisions and to keep a shared hope. As a fundamental aspect of human existence, play has been a source of expression, social interaction, and transformative growth across various cultures for thousands of years. Play design can connect and transform us to keep imagining and reimagining the future - together. In this theme track we explore the transformative power of play and how play design and designers can sparkle, initiate and support us imagining together. With a particular focus on the engagement and participation of the designers´ hands, bodies and their ability to amplify collective imagination, we emphasize the role of imagination, wonder, curiosity, joy, teasing and surprise in the design process as well as in the resulting products, services, and systems we create. The theme track will be guided by questions like: How can play design spark imagination? How can play design trigger ways of imagining together? How can play design trigger ways of transforming? How can play design connect us during transformation? Papers about play design as initiating transformation through imagination can be related to a range of arenas: Industry processes, services and products; public services and developments within healthcare or urban initiatives; cultural and tourism experiences; educational informal and formal learning; toy, game and playground products.