Conference article

The Playdate: Exploring how to host a learning exchange

Lisa Grocott
Monash University

Ilya Fridman
Monash University

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Published in: ServDes.2020 Tensions, Paradoxes and Plurality Conference Proceedings, 2-5th February 2021, Melbourne, Australia

Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 173:83, p. 642-642

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Published: 2020-12-22

ISBN: 978-91-7929-779-4

ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)

Abstract

If we want service design to evolve in conversation with the socio-cultural messiness inherent to the field, we should carve out spaces where we regularly question and explore our practices. This session plays with how we might translate the experiential conference workshop to the workplace. The kids playdate is introduced as an analogous situation for exploring how designers might learn from other designers, intentionally emphasizing how the learning exchange would embody the value of reciprocity and the principles of participatory prototyping. What a parent might call sharing and playing nicely with friends.

Playdate principles create a space for collective experiencing and proposing of how the learning encounter serves us as life-long learners. Distinct from the one-sided dry run of a workshop or the passive case study presentation, the playdate invites guests to show up with their expertise, hard won wisdom, and independent curiousity so we might learn together.

Keywords

participatory design, workshop design, learning, design-based research, play

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