A Location-based game to visualize spatial tactics

This dissertation has explored the potential of designing a tool to support participatory processes addressing spatial planning issues as a site-specific location-based game (LBG). The research objective was to develop a tool able to (1) provide valuable information to the spatial experts regarding local knowledge, and to (2) expand people’s understanding about their environment and about behavior (of others and their own) in space, while (3) providing genuine motivation for people to engage in such a process. This triple objective has been addressed via an interdisciplinary research involving fields like architecture and urban design, ecological and cognitive psychology, phenomenology, sociology, game design and ICT coming together under one umbrella, by intertwining design research, social research, case-study analysis and project experimentation. The output of this research consists of two distinctive, but interdependent, parts. The first part is theoretical and it is conveyed in a set of guiding principles for the design of the tool. In accordance with these guiding principles, the design of this tool should (1) observe everyday spatial tactics, (2) take place in the context where they are performed, (3) avoid imposing pre-defined topics that don’t belong to participants’ mind frame, while still asking relevant questions, and (4) encourage spontaneity through ambiguity, which may, eventually, (5) give rise to unexpected behavior -in this way rousing participants’ capacity for awareness. Moreover, as a game, the tool should be able to (6) strike the right balance between seriousness and playfulness, while (7) employing locative media in combination with a specific task to rouse the sense of presence and (8) use social media to assist an exchange of knowledge among players. The second part comprises the case study, consisting of the design, implementation and assessment of the LBG Cure for the Campus as a four-day treasure-hunt adventure set up for the specific condition of the PHL University campus. This experiment delivered a very large amount of data, which has been organized into three data sets from which the findings of this dissertation have been derived, in close relation to the three research objectives.

Publication year:2014

Accessibility:Open