Game Tables

Product Design Year 2

PRO210 “Conceptual Design” 2008
Fabrizio Galli

Furniture for social interaction in public spaces

ABSTRACT

The School of Art, Design & Media in Singapore is exploring various methodologies for combining the teaching of interaction and product design. The project, presented in the Conceptual Development class for 2nd year students in the 2nd semester 2008, is an “entry level” class for exploring topics like user interface, interaction and experience design.

“For young people today, technology is pervasive in many aspects of life”. The statement holds true, but at the same time, it is also an undeniable fact that the more the younger generation are immersed into the “virtual world”, the further they lack in the understanding of simple mechanical and physics principles. The word “interaction” has mainly been perceived in the context of a man-computer relationship and its role in the physical context has often been neglected.

“Game-Tables“ is a project exploring the basic rules of interaction and entertainment in a “analogical” way. The intention is to create easily understandable and highly entertaining games which are also capable of stimulating social interaction among the customers (mainly students) of the coffee-shop located into the school.

The idea is to combine a coffee table with a mechanical game with the challenge of embedding an entertaining tool into an object that has also to conserve its own original utilitarian use. From the pedagogic point of view, the project of designing games offers an excellent opportunity for stimulating creativity, for learning how to challenge the physical mechanical constrains of materials and for understanding and exploring the interaction. In the practical framework, students had the experience of designing a set of rules, imagining a scenario of use and creating a playful situation that can enhance the social experience.

The students developed 22 projects in a fully-working prototype. Feedback from the users has been collected and taken as reference to improve the second generation of the game-tables.

KEYWORDS
Games, user’s interface, interaction, entertainment, public space

Rules for the “game table”   The table defined dimension, 75×75 cm. Smooth edges to avoid any hurt or injury to the users. Surface easy to clean and maintain. Materials resistant to the use. The game dimension, 40×40x10 cm. The positioning is at the center of the table. The table top must be free of obstacles to allow normal use. Access to play the game is only from the table sides. The game must be sealed (nothing can go in or out). No accessories or spare parts for playing. No electronic, magnetic or electric devices.

All the works are original and produced during the 2nd semester 2008 in the class of

Conceptual Development at ADM – School of Art, Design & Media in Singapore.

Student Game Table Gallery

Click thumbnail to view the details of each game table