{"id":1311,"date":"2011-03-08T09:47:38","date_gmt":"2011-03-08T08:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/?p=1311"},"modified":"2019-11-06T17:45:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T16:45:00","slug":"does-warioware-diy-make-users-into-designers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/08\/does-warioware-diy-make-users-into-designers\/","title":{"rendered":"Does WarioWare DIY make users into designers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As established in a paper by Allison Druin, there are degrees to which user\u2019s can be engaged into the design process. At the very low end of the scale are simple users, with the level of engagement increasing through \u2018testers\u2019, \u2018informants\u2019 up to full \u2018design partners\u2019. Design partners have the strongest level of engagement and have considerable influence over the final product created.<\/p>\n

WarioWare DIY is a Nintendo DS game released last year that gave players the ability to design and build their own mini-games, by creating art, music and code using easily accessible in-game tools, and requiring little experience. As well as providing an easy to use toolkit to create games, WarioWare also gives players the tools to share their creations with other players. Today I\u2019ll be considering whether this makes the player into a design partner, and hence becomes participatory design.<\/p>\n

\n
\"WarioWare

WarioWare DIY<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n


\nThere are many arguments why WarioWare DIY can be considered to be participatory design. By giving control to the player over the art, sound and game play, it empowers the players into being able to make important design decisions, and have significant influence over the final product. By allowing players to share their content, this influence extends beyond their personal copy into the general population, and becomes a major part of the public impression of the game (much like Little Big Planet\u2019s levels, or Minecraft\u2019s creations!).<\/p>\n

WarioWare is not a clear-cut example of participatory design however, and touches on many of the prominent debates in this field. Although players are free to create anything within the tools given, they are still subject to constraints. For example, if the player wanted to create a massively multiplayer online game, WarioWare wouldn\u2019t be able to do this\u2026<\/p>\n

Do the tools artificially constrain the player\u2019s creations? By allowing them to create only in a safe space, are they not true designers? It can be argued so.<\/p>\n

But then again, aren\u2019t all stakeholders in any project subject to constraints? If Steve Jobs decided Apple should make a time travelling DeLoreon, he wouldn\u2019t be able to, despite being the CEO, due to constraints such as budget, and technology. So the real question is: if WarioWare isn\u2019t participatory, what is?<\/p>\n

\n
\"Flying

The iPhone 5?<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As established in a paper by Allison Druin, there are degrees to which user\u2019s can be engaged into the design process. At the very low end of the scale are simple users, with the level of engagement increasing through \u2018testers\u2019, \u2018informants\u2019 up to full \u2018design partners\u2019. Design partners have the strongest level of engagement and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games-user-research","grve-entry-item","grve-blog-item"],"yoast_head":"\nDoes WarioWare DIY make users into designers? - Steve Bromley - User Research<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stevebromley.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/08\/does-warioware-diy-make-users-into-designers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Does WarioWare DIY make users into designers? - Steve Bromley - User Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As established in a paper by Allison Druin, there are degrees to which user\u2019s can be engaged into the design process. At the very low end of the scale are simple users, with the level of engagement increasing through \u2018testers\u2019, \u2018informants\u2019 up to full \u2018design partners\u2019. 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