Designing play solutions with the lenses of play card tool

This chapter will present a design tool, called the Lenses of Play, that provides five different perspectives when designing (digital) play solutions. The five play perspectives include designing for 1) forms of play, 2) open-ended play, 3) playful experiences, 4) stages of play and 5) emergence of play over time. The Lenses of Play is a card-based design tool, consisting of a total of twenty-six cards that provide design knowledge. When designing for play, a designer can switch between and combine these different perspectives to develop a rich play solution. The tool is useful for teaching design students how and when to consider different design perspectives in a design process. It can also be used by (experienced) play designers to ideate, evaluate and present play design considerations to make the different perspectives and qualities of play explicit.