Thesis:
Thesis Goals:
The goals of this thesis is to expand my knowledge of human centered design research, explore the MDP's Super Studio methods further, and use methods that use the strengths of design, for research. A case study project, research, interning, and teaching were all employed to reach these goals.
The case study project is Women Who Play. It is an investigation into the lives of ten women, in their twenties, in Los Angeles, who play video games. Designed activities, called probes, were sent to their homes and interviews conducted. With this returned material a process of analysis using design was done and findings about the women found. The outcome of the case study was a book that contains detailed revelations of their experiences.
The goal of the project was to reveal new, true, experiences for designers to use in cultural production. For instance a key finding of the case study was that women stopped playing in high school and then began again in their first years of college. This is a nearly consistent finding that strongly suggests a marketing approach for keeping women interested in games. However, much more interesting than that fact is the descriptions the women gave for why they came back to games in college. "It was the first time I could buy games for myself." "There wasn't cable in the dorms." "I was alone a lot."
Those findings and experiences are detailed in the outcome book "Gamer Portraits: Outliers--women in their twenties." It is available on this website for download. This paper is about the process of conducting the project, the methods used, and reflections on them.