Game for complete care : a means of connecting 'user-centered design' with sustainability

Abstract

This paper addresses sustainability and gaming from an interior design education perspective, emphasizing the importance of understanding the meaning of 'complete care' and raising the awareness of care among design students. The four-step inquiry was adopted as a methodological framework. The theoretical model of 'complete care' was proposed and the interactive game 'Ideal Home' was developed to raise the awareness of care in design. The game imitated a conversation activity between the interior designer and the client at the early stage of the design process and assisted 'designers' to ask meaningful questions from 'clients' so as to develop a better understanding of their care needs. Six postgraduate students with interior design backgrounds played the game, and they were observed and interviewed. The results suggested that the participants' understanding of care improved after they played the game and they were able to identify more issues and detailed needs through the conversations. The significance of the research is that it proposes a theoretical framework to explain the meaning of 'complete care' in the design process, and also develops a practical tool (i.e., the game) to educate designers about care.