How to design for co-creation and emotional durability in the field furniture design through game dynamics?
Digital Kuriøs - A Virtual Furniture Studio for Co-Creation is a service and a digital platform for the startup furniture and design company Kuriøs Studio. The platform is built on game dynamics to facilitate co-creation with a goal to achieve emotional durability in the field of furniture design. The platform invites business partners and customers (Kuriøs Friends) into the creative process of Kuriøs Studio through an interactive and social space where all actors can play and create together.
Kuriøs Studio's vision is to elicit joy, mainly through furniture and interior design with playful and surprising elements. The design processes are often driven by curiosity, challenging the set frames of what furniture can be and designing products that will last. The motivation for the project was to create a digital platform as a part of establishing Kuriøs Studio in the market, reflecting the company values. Whereas challenging the goal of growth and consumerism by rephrasing the desired values through activation and engagement was a driving force.
The research was conducted through a systems oriented approach to design. Project methods have included game theory, sales safari, probes, game analysis, platform analysis, perspective interviews and GIGA-mapping, amongst others. The research emerged findings of successful use of game dynamics and co-creation considering elicitation of communities, activation and emergent behavior. The findings provided values possible to extract and utilize when developing the concept of Digital Kuriøs.
A significant benefit to the project is the rather radical approach to interacting with business partners and customers, considering the active inclusion into the design process through the digital platform. Co-creation permeates the project process and design proposal, as well as representing the philosophy of Kuriøs Studio; to design for and with creativity, co-creation and curiosity.