Design games make users part of product and service design
14.08.2012
Along with professional designers, companies and service providers have a growing interest in involving users in the design of products and services. Play-like methods are utilised in joint ideation sessions.
In her doctoral dissertation, Master of Arts Kirsikka Vaajakallio studied what design games really are and determined their essential qualities. Vaajakallio is the 100th person to earn a Doctor of Arts degree from Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture.
– The increased application of design games has led to inconsistent use of the term and unclear definitions. I tried to clarify the definition, goals and qualities of design games by examining two parts of them – the game and design – and their relationship to each other, explains Vaajakallio.
Design games as a metaphor and means of organising activities
Design games refer to multidisciplinary workshops that are part of product and service development processes. They support design co-operation between experts and end users. Joint design and the methods used to support it are important in order to understand and take into consideration the possible needs and requests of users and service providers, among other things.
– Design games can function as a metaphor that emphasises the play-like, relaxed atmosphere of a design workshop and as a concrete way of organising and directing design workshop activities by means of playing rules and material, describes Vaajakallio.
However, the games cannot be unequivocally defined because they are always specific to the situation. According to Vaajakallio’s research, design games can be examined from three angles.
– Design games serve as a tool for designers as they organise multidisciplinary ideation. They provide the people taking part in a design game with a way of thinking and attitude that serves as a springboard for ideation. The design workshop leader benefits from their structure when guiding the work, outlines Vaajakallio.
Practical workshops produced a reference framework that works as a tool
Vaajakallio’s research approach is based on empirical cases. She has arranged multidisciplinary workshops in different situations, projects and with different types of people.
– The empirical cases and game development took place as part of projects conducted in co-operation with companies. One of the key projects was “Extreme Design, which involved collaboration between several research institutions and a service industry company and developed new methods for service design, says Vaajakallio.
Based on her analysis of the recorded workshops and related literature, Vaajakallio developed a play framework.
The outcome of the research was a model for organising a creative co-design process around design games right from the start. The design games developed during the work provide practical examples for applying the model and describe the goals and properties of different design games.
Public examination of the doctoral dissertation
Kirsikka Vaajakallio works as a researcher in the Encore research group at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. She has been involved in numerous design research projects with public and private companies. Vaajakallio graduated from the Institute of Design and Fine Arts at Lahti University of Applied Sciences in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in industrial design, after which she completed a master’s degree at the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 2006.
Master of Arts Kirsikka Vaajakallio will defend her doctoral dissertation “Design games as a tool, a mindset and a structure” at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture at noon on 24 August 2012, lecture room 822, Hämeentie 135C, Helsinki. Professor Jacob Buur from the University of Southern Denmark will serve as the opponent.
Kirsikka Vaajakallio is the 100th person to defend a doctoral dissertation in the field of industrial design at the School of Arts, Design and Architecture. The School will hold a separate event later in the autumn in honour of the 100th Doctor of Arts.
The dissertation was published in August 2012 in the Aalto University publication series Doctoral Dissertations. Orders can be placed with the Aalto University School of Art, Design and Architecture’s online bookshop: books.aalto.fi, inquiries: books-taik [at] aalto [dot] fi, tel. +358 50 313 7086.
Further information:
Kirsikka Vaajakallio
Tel. +358 50 585 3289
kirsikka.vaajakallio [at] aalto [dot] fi