Playful empowerment, the role of game design innovation in participatory citizenship.

In this talk I will address a changing perspective on design, one in which users are defined as social and economical actors who co-create products and services. We will see that the role of play in its contemporary and digital form for instance through games, apps, interactive toys is essential in this process. This talk consists of two parts. The first part focuses on our research in play and civic interaction design. I will define play in its digital form and its intrinsic qualities, such as fun, experience, creation, collaboration, and competition. I will then show that through these qualities a new digital culture has emerged in which, instead of a top-down, one-to- many vertical cascade, we find bottom-up, many-to-many, horizontal, peer-to-peer communications (Jenkins, 2009). In the second part, I will sketch the research and game designs in relation to research and education at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, including further collaboration with partners in industry and research. The main focus in this talk is on the challenge of how to design for these collective opportunities, e.g. in health care, education and city planning.