Via the use of applied games design methodologies, based on analytical grounding, this paper examines the possibility of developing a new type of Policy Game, Wicked Games, as Participatory Design method for use when working with multiple stakeholders on Critical, Crucial, Complex and Wicked Problems (Rittel & Webber 1973). This paper approaches this topic from a Games Design Research perspective, to shed new light on the qualities of medium for participatory designers. This paper provides a definition of, design heuristics for, and an example of a Wicked Game as a starting point for further work within the topic, as well as providing an analysis of a Formal Analysis as a methodology for extracting tacit knowledge from games, Distributed Playtests as a means for gathering information to allow rapid iteration within games design.

Participatory design approach emphasizes user involvement to contribute to interactive systems throughout the design process. The potential user participates in many activities in different physical meetings and workshops. This approach helps the designers to develop better tools to support users work but it is difficult to get them to co-design at the same place and time for many reasons. I have also experienced this kind of difficulty in the school projects involving users in the design process. Many new technologies nowadays have been introduced and used for different purposes so I have asked myself how I can use this to get control over this kind of difficulty. And how to bring people together online to co- design instead of having any physical workshops. Today, many online technologies are used to facilitate PD activities and bring the potential users together regardless of time and space. Some researchers have investigated online media platforms that people are familiar with, for example Facebook to reach their users. Some of them use online tools developed for conducting participatory design online.This study investigates how to design remote/online meeting formats to engage people with different media habits in the early stages of participatory design to get inspiration for redesigning a website. It is very important for a participatory design at a distance to understand and adapt to individual media habits and technological skills because this aspect is crucial for the success of bringing the participants together online and persuade them to contribute including making them willing to involve and perform their online work tasks. The project facilitator should get to know already in the beginning of the project about different communication ways that each participant prefers and usually uses in their daily life. To make sure that the facilitator can reach the potential users and bring them to collaborate online and give their contribution to a design in time. This study shows also that the relation between the participants and the temple or the facilitator is crucial for the success of getting them to contribute. Another aspect that the facilitator needs to take into account is to know about the users’ technological background. This can be used as basic information to choose online tools or media platforms to design online meeting formats to engage people in the design process. The tools that match the participants’ skills make them focus more on their work tasks rather than technical issues. But even if someone has high computer skills, it does not mean that he wants to work with whatever tools in some online activities, the facilitator has to adapt according to what they prefer or give them choices and flexibility. In addition, it is not enough only to observe and provide different channels for the participants to get feedback. It is hard to observe people working online and not everyone says what they think to the facilitator. To know how the users interact with and think about different online meeting formats during the design project by doing feedback interview after each PD stage helps the facilitator to improve online meeting formats for the next steps. The facilitator gets possibilities to repeat and clarify some issues during the project, encourages the participant to continue or contribute more, and prepares them for the next steps. The participants get better understanding of the project and motivation to move on.

This thesis gives you an introduction to rewarding conversations and a set of guidelines for reaching them more easily. I have found that there is an interest for having rewarding conversations with strangers. In a number of experiments I have tested a variation of arranged meetings between strangers aiming at creating rewarding conversations. This study have shown that more participants reaching rewarding conversations in a private meeting in contrast to a space where several conversations takes place. Several experiments has confirmed that there is an interest for listening to other people’s rewarding conversations and that they prefer longer, but edited conversations. By studying the experience of listing to a conversation I found that the understanding of what we hear will be different for everyone, down to the level of a specific word. Similarly the understanding of what you hear will change depended on if you are listening alone or with other people, which means that the surrounding situation affect what you perceive. It is still possible to recognise a general quality despite of subjective preferences. Based on the findings I have created a design proposal, a website whose goal is to encourage rewarding conversations through allowing to arranging and spreading them.

This project takes a research through design approach, presenting the design process of an interactive sonic installation – SoundEscape – mounted on a walking bridge in Ørstedsparken, Copenhagen. SoundEscape makes people interact with sounds from rural areas of Denmark into the middle of the city. Featuring speakers and motion sensors, the prototype uses people crossing the bridge as an input for building up a soundscape – layer by layer as the person detected moves on. SoundEscape is just one prototype exploring how people can build up a soundscape through their movement across the bridge. The paper suggest more areas of the interactive design space to explore. Designing the installation, we went through four phases: field research, exploration synthesis, and concept development. Participants where included in the process to collect sound input from rural areas in Denmark. In all phases, we kept a close dialogue with the context, grounding design decisions in the observations and explorations we did on the bridge. We made two tests of the prototype: on a mini-scale model and in the park context. The paper presents a framework for interactive sonic installations that are used to analyse SoundEscape and compares it with another sonic installation on a bridge that have a different form of interactivity. Based on this analysis, the findings from the design process, and the two tests, the paper discuss the interactivity in the prototype. The paper suggest how the interactions with the soundscape can be further extended.

This thesis is focus on finding ways ​ to bring awareness to the parents about the complexity of the internet in order to empower them at the moment to approach online protection topics with their children, therefore it started with a analysis of the online protection field from a broader perspective and eventually by comparing the field with the insights gathered during a set of interventions, it narrowed down to online protection for kids and the relation with the parents and their children in relation with this topic.The research followed a research through design approach which allows the process to learn from the outcomes of every iterations and generates a dynamic relation of framing and reframing that enables the design process to modify its focus within the same field based on the conversation of the results and the theory.Additionally, a participatory design approach based on a set of workshops and interviews with experts, informed the process in which could be the most suitable approach to reach the goal of the project.As a result, this thesis propose a set of tools to generate collective solutions among parents based on the understanding of the internet infrastructure and the open discussion about the internet issues their children could faced.Besides, this exploration aims to state a new role of the interaction designer as the mediator within the relation between the user and and the technology different than by setting a set of usability rules but closer to the generation of codes of conduct grounded in an open discussion between the all the parts involved. This approach motivates a transparent dialogue about thesocial and ethical implication in the use of such tools.

This research investigates how a communication system could support urban gardeners intheir activities. By looking at agriculture not as a mere activity for food production but as arich social practice, this research addresses gardeners dual need of acquiring knowledge and develop social relationship.Findings from an ethnographic research of two local agriculture communities are described.Participatory design has been used to identify design opportunities and co-create conceptideas. Prototypes have been used to evaluate key aspects and refine the final concept. Byinviting intended users to take an active role during the entire design process, the result of this research is grounded not only in the theory but also on people's aspirations and realexperience.

This paper deals with the difficulties of applying user-centered design practices as an independent developer, based on the visualization of a game concept in the form of a prototype. The aim is to evaluate the usability of user-centered design practices, specifically in the field of games development. Throughout this paper, I will give an account of the methods used for testing, as well as a review of previous research done in this field of study. Finally, I will end with a discussion regarding the pros and cons of user-centered design, as well as some thoughts about its importance in similar projects.

This is a documentation of a programmatic design approach, moving through different levels of an established practice of grassroots activism. The text frames an open-ended, exploratory methodology, as four stages of investigation, trying to find possible ways to shape and increase understanding of, and facilitate a process, of co-designing a practice. It presents the experience of looking for opportunities for counter-narration, as contribution to an activist cause, and questioning the role, purpose and approach of a designer in a grassroots activist environment.

The ongoing digital transformation of our societies impacts all aspects of our lives aswell as the international development and the design for social change. Having said that,in this paper I studied whether the design of participatory ICT4Ds can engage the localend-users/beneficiaries in the processes of knowledge and identity creation, and thus,achieve their self-representation in order to break the colonial-based stereotypes. Moreover, I examined whether the locals’ participation can emancipate design, development,and ICT4Ds from their colonial heritage and the related universalisms, and thus, achievethe construction of a postcolonial pluriversal world.To examine all of the above, I combined the approach of comparative case studies with aseries of interviews. As my research context I investigated the participatory dimensions oftwo ICT4D initiatives, namely UNICEF’s U-Report Yunitok Kenya and Map Kibera, thatoperate also in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya. Because of this area’s colonial historyand influence I used postcolonialism as my theoretical framework.The results of this study suggest that the design of participatory ICT4Ds can be influentialin the knowledge and identity creation of the Global South and this has the dynamics tocreate a postcolonial pluriversal world. Similarly, locals’ participation seems to have thepotential to emancipate design, development, and ICT4Ds from their colonial heritage.Nevertheless, this study advocates that the postcolonial rejection of universalisms mightbe problematic as it seems that the concept is not inherently negative but it rather hasstrong connotations due to its connection with the colonial history.

This project is a simulation of the redesign of Växjö Lakers ice hockey club brand identity. A conversation about Co-branding and participatory design to include fans and people in general to take part in designing the brand identity of the club they support. My role as designer is to test, examine and analyse to come up with design methods and tools (Create your own logo website) that will enable fans and everyone to design their own version of the Växjö Lakers identity. In order to connect and create a bridge between club and fans that are willing to take part in such project, this will result of creating designs that would be more relevant to the image of the club that fans imagined.