Design for Play

Playing is an act best done in groups larger than two. But who’s to say that playing alone is not fun too?

Mammals have a tendency to play. Playfulness is a feature generally exhibited in early childhood and continues to develop into adulthood in many different forms, ranging from innocent board games to serious acts of destruction.

They say it’s healthy to get out of the box and be silly to keep the creative juices flowing. So, in order to keep up the momentum with our Connected Air Care project and crack the puzzle of social interactivity between people, we’ve decided to try and understand how to engage human beings, namely young creative millennials who think they’re all that.

After much contemplation and planning, the team at Slingshot Labs decided to hop onto the playground and get wild. The reason being – other than wanting to disrupt the peace – was to engage members of the Elisava community to dissolve the barrier between the subcultures who share the same space yet don’t mingle with each other.

 

 

And so the #ElisavaLine came to life, a portrait challenge to bridge the gap between the inhabitants of the Elisava campus (teachers, students, and alumni too!). A bell is attached to a DIY set of microphone and speaker, once the phone rings, participants are invited to ask the person on the other end to describe themselves and draw their interpretation of that person, then share the drawing on the wall and on their social media accounts.

 

 

One could be relaxing on the terrace and have the opportunity to speak to a stranger on the ground floor anonymously. All that binds them together is a funny conversation and a descriptive hand-drawn sketch, but that’s enough to make a friendship once they both visit the wall of fame!

 

 

Elements of the game such as the seating arrangement and table heights had been altered after several iterations that were based on feedback from the users. The best part is that the final setup was organic enough to invite people over effortlessly, even in the absence of the Slingshot Labs team members.

 

 

The team learned that while it may take more satire to make young adults share a school related #ElisavaLine post on their everlasting social media accounts, building some personal connections turn out to be easier than expected…