School

Parsons School of Design

Program

Masters Communication Design

Course

Play as Social

Play as Research: Parsons x KADK

Play as Research: Parsons x KADK Collaboration This interdisciplinary course explored play as both a creative research method and a social experience. In collaboration with graduate students from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK), we examined how play can reveal and reshape communal dynamics in everyday life. Guided by Jesper Juul, Nancy Nowacek, and John Sharp, the course combined approaches from social practice art, participatory and systems design, and iterative experimentation. Beginning with a hands-on workshop at Parsons and culminating in a collaborative week-long residency in Copenhagen, the class emphasized play as a tool for inquiry, interaction, and collective making.

Choose Your Path

I collaborated with a team of five students from Parsons and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (KADK) to design a game that reimagined wayfinding at the Design Museum Denmark. Our goal was to make navigation more intuitive and engaging through play. We developed a system of themed pathways that encouraged visitors to explore the museum in different ways — including a Danish design–focused route, a comprehensive route covering every exhibit, and a playful, curiosity-driven path. Along each route, visitors could collect tokens featuring interactive prompts and contextual facts, turning the act of moving through the museum into a participatory and exploratory experience.

Problem

We began the week with a visit to the Danish Design Museum, where we met with guide manager, Malene to learn about the museum’s existing challenges with visitor flow. She highlighted key problem areas — particularly where guests tended to get lost or disengaged. Notably, the museum’s layout opened with an exhibition of Japanese prints, which often caused confusion among visitors expecting to encounter Danish design artifacts first. Using these insights, we kicked off our ideation process the following day to explore ways of improving clarity and engagement through play.

Research Questions

• How might we have the guest move through the museums without worrying about wayfinding?
• How might we encourage play in a museum setting?
• How can play serve a method or outcome to create new forms of learning and engagement?
• How might we nudge visitors to more fully experience DMD?