Gamestorming

Chapter 8. Putting Gamestorming to Work

WE’VE TALKED ABOUT GAMES AS MICRO-WORLDS that you can create and explore to develop deeper understanding and insights about any topic. Now let’s take a look at a real-life example of how a small group used gamestorming to consider solutions to a specific problem.

Imagine a World: The Betacup Story

In the summer of 2009, a group of designers met at a remote conference center to exchange ideas and practices with people from other disciplines, in an annual gathering of minds that has come to be known as Overlap.

What is Overlap? New technologies and devices are changing the way people interact with information, and designers know they need to keep up. In a world where your phone can also be your Internet browser, your TV, your music player, and your GPS device, it’s no longer possible to design objects and interfaces without thinking about the complex webs of interactions they make possible. Because of this increasing complexity, design is changing from a solo activity to a team event, and designers know that the overlaps and intersections with other disciplines are where they will find the best ideas and opportunities for growth. So, they have developed an event whose entire purpose is to cross-pollinate ideas between design and other disciplines.

One of the challenges in planning an event like this is deciding how to organize the time. Every discipline has its own language, its own culture, a way of doing things. How do you bring them all together ...