Abstract
Moving across time horizons and system levels is challenging in collaborative innovation, where multiple agendas amplify complexity. As designers increasingly engage in processes aimed at transforming systems and fostering collaboration across boundaries, questions arise about how to navigate such complexity and orchestrate collaborative innovation. Situated within a collaborative innovation research project, this study draws on two empirical components: interviews with experienced design practitioners leading the multi-actor innovation processes, and the development and testing of a parallel design game. Design activities used for orchestrating collaborative innovation, identified through the interviews, informed the principles of the design game. The study presented here (1) identifies five key design activities used by designers to orchestrate collaborative innovation, (2) introduces design games as tools for orchestrating collaborative innovation, and (3) develops a framework demonstrating how design games can function as rehearsals for collaborative innovation, helping to establish real-world testbeds for systemic transformation.
Keywords
design practitioners, design games, systemic change, collaborative design
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1027
Citation
Saleh, D., and Hesselgren, M. (2026) Design games as rehearsals for collaborative innovation: Playing out the future system to learn the collaborative game, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1027
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Design games as rehearsals for collaborative innovation: Playing out the future system to learn the collaborative game
Moving across time horizons and system levels is challenging in collaborative innovation, where multiple agendas amplify complexity. As designers increasingly engage in processes aimed at transforming systems and fostering collaboration across boundaries, questions arise about how to navigate such complexity and orchestrate collaborative innovation. Situated within a collaborative innovation research project, this study draws on two empirical components: interviews with experienced design practitioners leading the multi-actor innovation processes, and the development and testing of a parallel design game. Design activities used for orchestrating collaborative innovation, identified through the interviews, informed the principles of the design game. The study presented here (1) identifies five key design activities used by designers to orchestrate collaborative innovation, (2) introduces design games as tools for orchestrating collaborative innovation, and (3) develops a framework demonstrating how design games can function as rehearsals for collaborative innovation, helping to establish real-world testbeds for systemic transformation.