SCUSA: identifying five types of disruption for playful experiences

ABSTRACT

The study explores the concept of playfulness in a design context. Playfulness is considered an important area because of the many positive effects it can have on human experiences. But in order to design for playfulness, there is a need to better understand the possible nuances of playful experiences. The objective of the current study is thus to provide such a nuanced understanding of playful experiences. The study was developed by exploring inherent drivers of playfulness through development of playful designs by a class of 25 Master students in design. This lead to identifying disruption as the overarching characteristic of playfulness, and developing a classification of five distinct (but not mutually exclusive) types of disruption, represented by the acronym SCUSA. The SCUSA model can be valuable as an entry-point for designing with the aim of eliciting playfulness, and for understanding and analyzing variations of playful experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Playfulness
• design
• disruption
• experiences

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the participating students for their enthusiastic engagement in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The research is funded by The LEGO Foundation within the grant Learning Through Play.

Notes on contributors

Jesper Falck Legaard

Jesper Falck Legaard is assistant professor at Design School Kolding, focusing on the design of toys that facilitate immersive play experiences, and the aesthetics of artifacts for eliciting playfulness. He has a background as Industrial Designer, and a PhD in Experience-based Design from the University of Southern Denmark.