The tedious rigour of making playful experiences
from a lightening talk at MuseumNext Sydney 2019 — thanks Jim @museumnextAU for inviting me to speak.
False beliefs inhibit the making of great things. I’m a huge optimist in that if we do the ground work – where are we going, how shall we get there? – then the work becomes easier and the product will be better. In that spirit, this is a quick corrective to some false beliefs i’ve heard in the museums sector about how to make things that encourage playful behaviours in audiences.
Here are some false beliefs:
I have kids, they play all the time
This means you have seen your kids play. All kids play. This means the same as ‘i once had dinner so i am a chef’
We are playful at work, so of course the thing we’re making will be playful
Free playful behaviour sure helps creativity. This’ll make every project stronger. But in itself, it doesn’t lead to a visitor playing. Just like your knowledge does not make an experience that leaves visitors knowledgeable.
Playful design makes play happen — plastic and bright colours!
No. Kids will play with a cardboard box.
Play is… [singular statement of unarguable fact]
This is the worst. You don’t know play unless you’ve read up and studied it. Here’s some better insight into play…
Play is a process
…it is best not to think of play as a thing, at all — like a car that speeds or a rose that smells sweet — but as a series of connected events. In this respect, play resembles a revolution, or a journey, or growth, or acceleration, or other processes that unfold and move along at varying rates…
The Elements of Play, Scott Eberle
Journal of Play, volume 6, number 2
What’s a better belief?
Play is best thought of not as something that happens in space but as something in time. Play is essentially a narrative under no-one’s direct control.
Play is diverse
How many types of play are there? Well…
Symbolic Play — eg a stick for a light sabre
Rough and Tumble Play
Socio-dramatic Play — enactment of real experiences, going to the shops
Social Play — play that has rules set between two or more people, games
Creative Play — making things
Communication Play — play using words or gestures, charades
Dramatic Play — enactment of stories, act a scene as Elsa
Locomotor Play — movement for its own sake chase, tree climbing
Deep Play — risky play to develop survival skills, lighting a fire with matches
Exploratory Play — ‘see what happens’ play banging objects
Fantasy Play — creating a make believe world not limited by reality
Imaginative Play — pretend play, pat a unicorn
Mastery Play — constructing environments, making a dam
Object Play — exploration of an object, examination of a cup
Role Play — exploring ways of being, sweeping
Recapitulative Play — exploration of ancestry, history, rituals
Hughes, B. (2002) A Playworker’s Taxonomy of Play Types,
2nd edition, London: PlayLink.
Be honest — how many of those did you never think of? I remember the first time I saw this list – mind expanded.
So how do you make a playful experience?
Making things to bring about play isn’t special — use the same techniques you’d use to make any other museumy thing.
If the goal is play then you need someone in the team who understands the above – who knows what play is, what factors go into enabling it, what will be a barrier to it.
- … you won’t succeed with an audience advocate. Have a play advocate.
- … you won’t succeed with a curator. Have a play expert.
Work out what success is — if you’ve made play happen, how will you know? What will you observe?
And then, like all projects, the basic work is the same: Talk. Sketch. Talk. Build. Talk. Draw. Talk. Retest. Talk. Draw. Talk. Make. Launch. (Toast.)
And once you’ve made it?
It is so easy to kill off the play in what you have made. You’ll need front of house / programming staff hired, trained and managed to enable play. There must be no creeping introduction of barriers to play. I’ve seen all these happen:
- Yes be playful but no climbing
- Yes be playful but speak quietly
- The way you / your child are playing is wrong
These will destroy playful behaviour in visitors.
And keep iterating. Learn, re-design, re-brief: Watch. Test. Re-make. Talk. Etc.
Maintain the play-first culture internally — set up the conditions where staff change etc. can’t kill it
Celebrate it for what it is, not for a fake museumyness. I have seen people laud the visitation stats, or the bustling feel… don’t. Celebrate that play is occurring, and don’t hesitate to use your amazing insight from early in the project to do that. Publish the theoretical underpinnings. Use academics in the field to evaluate and publish about you.
This diagram is amazing and makes my heart sing and my head spin when i study it. Play is something sidled up to, that you slowly enroll yourself into, that you flow into, through and then out of. Each word in here gives clues for how to enter, or to block, this from happening.
Serious business, play.
