#chiplay

We are hosting a workshop at CHI Play 2014 in Toronto, October 19th.

Feel free to share our call for participation with researchers, from industry or academia, that might be interested.

Call for Participation

While the importance of participatory design has been acknowledged broadly within the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), its use in serious games is less frequent. This workshop will explore the underpinning reasons for this gap and advance the identification of philosophical, methodological and pragmatic opportunities as well as challenges.

Submissions should contain case studies or reflexive accounts of experiences with participatory design and/or serious game design (approximately 500-1500 words). In particular we welcome visuals and videos to support these narratives. Case studies and reflexive accounts will be encouraged to address, while not being limited to, the following questions:

How does expertise influence power dynamics between different stakeholders? How should future players be involved in the design of game systems if they do not understand how game systems work, or equally if they don’t possess domain expertise?

How should we build on the perspectives, values, and ideas of players if, as politically incorrect as it sounds, these are not game-friendly, clash with the design aesthetics of game designers or contravene evidence from learning theories?

Given the type of stakeholders involved in serious games design, what are the value dilemmas that can occur and how can these be overcome by fostering intragroup or co-design dynamics?

What do researchers and users expect from participatory design and are these expectations realized in participatory design projects?

In light of the empowerment focus of participatory design, how can we use game design processes to empower users, and what do we do when users do not want to be empowered?

How might we use participatory design to foster an accountability culture in relation to the promise of serious games? How do we identify and address tokenism?

Accepted participants’ narratives will be made available and shared with other participants through the workshop’s website. During the workshop we will use mapping methods to synthesize emerging themes and to list productive practices. The outcome of the workshop will be a future agenda to benefit serious game design processes, publishable in both academic as more applied channels.

Practical information

Submission deadline: August 27, 2014, send submissions to a.vasalou[at]ioe.ac.uk

Notification: September 3, 2014

Workshop date: October 19, 2014, the Radisson Admiral Hotel in Toronto Harbourfront

For more questions, please visit the website at http://www.participatoryseriousgamedesign.com/ or contact the workshop organizers.