This document discusses how play and collaboration can improve the design process. It notes that play fosters qualities like empathy, trust, health and joy. It also cites research showing that play is critical to our ability to adapt and handle stress. The document recommends incorporating more play into work by getting people out of their comfort zones, dedicating time for individual and group idea generation, and embracing prototyping as a way to play with ideas. It argues this can help people and industries reinvent themselves as things change rapidly.

1. Your Design Process is Killing You
Sara Summers * SXSW 2010

2. Design Process
Play + Collab = Innovation

10. Soooo, what is the deal with play?

11. Dr. Stuart Brown

12. Play gives us:
Empathy
Trust
Health
Joy
Mastery

13. In the absence of play:
Depression
Rigidity
Dissocial
Inability to handle stress or ambiguity

14. T he science of play
Prepares us for
unknowns in an
evolving world.

15. T he science of play
...it’ is critical to
our adaptation.

16. T he science of play
We’’re HARD WIRED
to play throughout
our lifecycle.

17. T he science of play
And if done for
it’’s own sake,
play progresses us
towards mastery.

18. Play drives us to
seek novelty and
newness…

19. Tina Seelig, Executive Director for the
Stanford Technology Ventures Program

20. Dr. Seelig, teaches creativity by simply
getting people out of their comfort zone.

21. Dr. Robert Epstein’’s Shifting
A period of individual ideation, followed by group building
and generation produces significantly better ideas.

22. 5 minutes
Individual Ideation

23. 10 minutes
Group Share / Explore

24. Why play betters emotion and visual thinking

25. Play elicits our best qualities
…Kacie Kinzer’’s Tweenbots
100% human dependant robot:
- Straight line movement only
- Destination posted on flag
- Relies on strangers they meet
to reach their location.

26. …Kacie Kinzer’’s Tweenbots
What was the result?

27. …Kacie Kinzer’’s Tweenbots
After numerous missions:
- No robot was damaged,
lost or stolen.
- Every robot reached it’s
destination.

28. …Kacie Kinzer’’s Tweenbots
What does this tell us?

29. …Kacie Kinzer’’s Tweenbots
Inspires empathy and
the helpful, hopeful
nature of people.

30. But I am a perfectly rational, logical adult,
I problem solve just fine…

31. T he gambling test
…Antonio Damasio
Research shows emotions play a critical
role in social cognition and decision-making.

32. …Antonio Damasio ’’s experiment
-Subjects given $2000
play money.
-Instructed to make as
much money as possible.

33. …Antonio Damasio ’’s experiment
-2 high risk decks
bigger payouts/ $100
severe punishments/ $1000
-2 low risk decks
small payouts / $50
rare punishments

34. …Antonio Damasio ’’s experiment
T he result?

35. …Antonio Damasio ’’s experiment
On average people turned over 50 cards
before pulling only from the profitable decks.
At 80 cards they could articulate
WHY they preferred them.

36. …Antonio Damasio ’’s experiment
After only 10 cards, sensors
attached to subjects palms
detected increased
conductivity.
AKA nervousness.

37. …Antonio Damasio ’’s experiment
T he hand ‘knew’ what
deck to draw from.

38. …Antonio Damasio ’’s experiment
Unconscious feelings
from our body…
BIRT H CONSCIOUS T HOUGHT.

39. Play helps free us
from the dogma of our industry.

40. At its elemental core,
prototyping is an invitation to play.

41. Why does any of this matter?

42. Our industry is not done
reinventing itself.

43. Let everyone else worry about
what is #trending.

44. YOU go ninja…
-Rethink the technology
- Redesign your process
- SELL your results

45. Because things are about to move
REALLY fast…