It's Play Time
We’re rediscovering it. The spark that ignites us to play. For decades play has been limited to our children’s playrooms (where, obviously, it belongs) but we seem to have a new-found, collective realization about the potentials of play; as a path for life-long learning and as a trigger for innovative ways of interacting and building our societies in terms of education, business, and so on.
The potential of play is exactly the starting point of a new book: Framing Play Design – A Hands-on Guide for Designers, Learners & Innovators. The book, which is written and edited by Associate Professor Sune Gudiksen and Professor Helle Marie Skovbjerg from Design School Kolding in Denmark, is filled with examples of the importance of play in the 21st century and offers exciting insights by teachers and researchers from the design school’s unique Play and Design Lab.
Also, it offers specific advice and guidance on how to create powerful play-based experiences, products and services, and how to use play as a catalyst for involving users and stakeholders in the process of creating surprising and original solutions to difficult problems. Whether you’re working in the field of design, or learning and didactics, or you’re dedicated to creating innovative products and processes, the book gives you directions on how to activate the many positive elements of play.
- With this book we want to challenge the ways we think about innovation, progress and learning. We need to move away from the monotone, uniform and teacher-centred types of instruction and work with metronome and diverse teaching methods that foster openness and interaction and give a level of control to participants, explains Associate Professor Sune Gudiksen.
An efficient tool
This first book by the Play and Design team joins the fields of play and design to create a potent cocktail, which empowers and revitalises people to be creative, curious and dynamic – qualities which are essential in our time.
- In order to keep up with the rest of the world, creativity and innovation are key parameters. Elements that exist in play as well. When you mix a play framework with design methodology, you get an efficient tool that will help public as well as private organisations create value now and in the future, says Professor Helle Marie Skovbjerg.
The book covers core perspectives and proposes a framework for how to work with play and design in the years to come. It can serve as a theoretical and practical tool as well as kickstart conversations across professional fields and sectors.
Apart from the main authors and editors, eight Play Design researchers from Design School Kolding offer their take on the qualities and potentials of play now and in the future. Forewords are by Lene Tanggaard, Rector at Design School Kolding, and Bo Stjerne Thomsen, Vice President at The LEGO Foundation.
Lene Tanggaard writes:
- Play adds something radical to the Danish tradition for participatory co-design and development. Play is imaginative. It takes us beyond the here-and-now. It allows us to experiment with alternatives and transport ourselves into an imaginary setting.
Get the book
The book is available for purchase on Danish and international platforms:
If you would like to write a short review of the book, you can request a free copy by contacting Sune Gudiksen at skg@dskd.dk before 15 September.
About Design for Play
After years of intensifying its focus on Play Design, Design School Kolding finally in 2017 launched the world’s first-ever international MA programme in Design for Play in collaboration with The LEGO Foundation and The LEGO Group. The initiative includes research and development activities and is headed by a powerful time of teachers and researchers. In the book Framing Play Design, the team shares insights and tips on how to work with Play Design
“The book offers specific advice and guidance on how to create powerful play-based experiences, products and services, and how to use play as a catalyst for involving users and stakeholders in the process of creating surprising and original solutions to difficult problems.”
