Examining theory use in design research on fantasy play

Play is an essential activity in children’s lives. In the Child Computer Interaction (CCI) field, many authors refer to play and play theories when they describe their work. Play theories can come from many different disciplines, such as psychology, sociology and learning sciences. Theories from different disciplines can provide interpretations and inspiration sources when designing for play. In this study, we explore what theory clusters authors use and how they are used when design researchers report on design work for fantasy play. Based on 19 artefact-centred papers from the ACM digital library from the period 1999–2018, we analyse four components of reported theory use: design intention, design argumentation, design decisions and design evaluation. This paper provides a list of theory clusters that designers report on, showing that different clusters also indicate different conceptualisations of play. Furthermore, it describes three common strategies of theory cluster use: for contextualising the value of play, for highlighting the outcome of play and using design cases as ‘theory’ for supporting making design decisions. The paper concludes by providing reflective questions about how to report on the use of theory in designing for fantasy play. The questions can be used in order for future work in the Child Computer Interaction community to be precise and transparent about theory use in order to make it easier to build upon each other’s work.