Multispecies methods, technologies for play

ABSTRACT This article discusses methodological considerations of user-centred design for non-human animals. These considerations are illustrated through a design research project that aims to apply digital technology to build games for orangutans’ enrichment. The article argues that design for other species reveals limitations of designers’ knowledge of prospected users. The article explores how to approach participants who cannot express themselves verbally and how to recognise play that may not look familiar to the designer. The article finally presents a participatory design method that allows for non-human contributions in design. This method applies play as an interspecies co-creative act and can be used as a starting point for addressing questions of difference in play and designing games that allow for ambiguous play.

[1]  Clara Mancini,et al.  Animal-computer interaction: a manifesto , 2011, INTR.

[2]  Clay Spinuzzi,et al.  The Methodology of Participatory Design , 2005 .

[3]  J. Huizinga.  Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture , 1938 .

[4]  Liza Lim,et al.  How forests think , 2016 .

[5]  Dominique Lestel,et al.  The Phenomenology of Animal Life , 2014 .

[6]  J. Tambling.  How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics by N. Katherine Hayles (review) , 2001, Modern Language Review.

[7]  Bonnie M. Perdue,et al.  The use of technology to enhance zoological parks. , 2011, Zoo biology.

[8]  B. Beck.  Animal Tool Behavior , 1980 .

[9]  Anne E. Russon,et al.  Tools for the Trees , 2015 .

[10]  James C. Kaufman,et al.  Applying a creativity framework to animal cognition , 2004 .

[11]  D. Norman.  The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition , 2013 .

[12]  G. Burghardt.  The Genesis of Animal Play: Testing the Limits , 2005 .

[13]  D. Goode.  Playing with my dog Katie : an ethnomethodological study of dog-human interaction , 2007 .

[14]  Dario Martinelli,et al.  A Critical Companion to Zoosemiotics , 2010 .

[15]  C. Driessen,et al.  What could playing with pigs do to us? Game design as multispecies philosophy , 2014 .

[16]  Hanna Wirman,et al.  Defeated by an orangutan? Approaching cross-species gameplay , 2011 .

[17]  M. Akrich.  User Representations: Practices, Methods and Sociology , 1995 .

[18]  Tuuli Mattelmäki,et al.  What Happened to Empathic Design? , 2014, Design Issues.

[19]  Robert W. Mitchell,et al.  Creativity in the Interaction , 2015 .

[20]  Patrick Bateson,et al.  Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation , 2013 .

[21]  John Zimmerman,et al.  Design Research through Practice , 2011 .

[22]  Stefano Gualeni,et al.  Grounded Zoomorphism: An Evaluation Methodology for ACI Design , 2014, ACE '14 Workshops.

[23]  Carl Anderson,et al.  The extended organism: The physiology of animal-built structures , 2000, Complex..

[24]  James C. Kaufman,et al.  Animal Creativity and Innovation , 2015 .

[25]  T. Fry.  Becoming Human by Design , 2012 .

[26]  J. S. Turner,et al.  The Extended Organism: The Physiology of Animal-Built Structures , 2000 .

[27]  Donna Haraway,et al.  Investigating the therapeutic benefits of companion animals: Problems and challenges , 2007, Qualitative Sociology Review.

[28]  Donna Harawy.  Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective , 2022, Philosophical Literary Journal Logos.

[29]  Javier Jaén Martínez,et al.  Animal Ludens: Building Intelligent Playful Environments for Animals , 2014, ACE '14 Workshops.

[30]  Veerle Van Rompaey,et al.  Introducing human-centered research to game design: designing game concepts for and with senior citizens , 2006, CHI EA '06.

[31]  O. Leino.  Understanding Games as Played : Sketch for a first-person perspective for computer game analysis , 2009 .

[32]  S. Kraemer.  Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Gregory Bateson , 1993, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[33]  Karin Lindström,et al.  When Species Meet , 2016 .

[34]  Frank Noz,et al.  Cat cat revolution: an interspecies gaming experience , 2011, CHI.

[35]  Gordon M. Burghardt,et al.  Creativity, Play, and the Pace of Evolution , 2015 .

[36]  S. Hinchliffe,et al.  Where Species Meet , 2007 .

[37]  Eben Kirksey,et al.  The Multispecies Salon , 2014 .

[38]  Karolien Poels,et al.  Playability and Player Experience Research [Panel Abstracts] , 2009, DiGRA Conference.

[39]  Helen Sharp,et al.  Designing Interactive Toys for Elephants , 2015, CHI PLAY.

[40]  H. Wirman.  Games for/with strangers - captive orangutan (Pongo Pygmaeus) touch screen play , 2014 .

[41]  N. Katherine Hayles,et al.  How we became posthuman , 1999 .

[42]  Marc Bekoff,et al.  Wild Justice Honor and Fairness among Beasts at Play , 2009 .

[43]  Thomas J. Misa,et al.  Managing technology in society: the approach of constructive technology assessment , 1997 .

[44]  Frans Mäyrä,et al.  Player-Centred Game Design: Experiences in Using Scenario Study to Inform Mobile Game Design , 2005, Game Stud..

[45]  Stefan Helmreich,et al.  Introduction: Tactics of Multispecies Ethnography , 2014 .

[46]  R. Caillois,et al.  Man, Play and Games , 1958 .