In this paper, the authors describe how game-like approaches can be used as a way of exploring a practice from a design point of view. Thinking of ethnographic fieldwork as a base for sketching, rather than descriptions, creates openness that invites collaborative authoring. The concept of playful collaborative exploration suggests certain ways of interacting with material from field studies so that it becomes a design material for an open-ended design process. The authors carried out field studies, transformed the field material into design material, and set up a design game for working with it together with the people we followed in the field. The design game builds on an idea about the power of narratives and the benefits of constraining rules. The authors contend that this framework for collaboration opens for playfulness, experimentation, and new design ideas.
Journal of Research Practice, Volume 1, Issue 1, Article M5, 2005
Published online by ICAAP
