Playing is fun, everyone likes it. But what is that makes us enjoying to play? What means to play? What is playfulness? Can we design better products if we base interaction concepts on aspects of playfulness? In this course, we will engage with such questions, critically discuss different perspectives and try to find meaningful answers.
We will start to explore playfulness in interaction design by re-designing well-known everyday objects and conducting small ethnographic-like studies to understand empirically what characterizes playfulness. In parallel to developing a first-person perspective on the topic, we will likewise engage with existing literature in the field of HCI, design research and other related areas. We will look at other playful examples and search for own design ideas that exemplify playful interactions.
Methodologically, we will engage with different approaches and methods according to the specific needs of each final project idea: Participatory design, embodied design, and speculative design are potential approaches to ideate and translate ideas into real prototypes. Focus groups, diary studies and cultural probes are potential data collection methods beyond interview and observation to understand how the target users experience our design ideas.
As needed, we will conduct an Arduino workshop and other practical hands-on exercises to get the skills needed for prototyping our ideas. Depending on the pandemic situation, we will hold our classes in person and enable team work. |
