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Group members:
Mansi Chottani, Kye Li Chia, Ruoxi Song
Research question:
How can we preserve traditions through games?
Our solution
Introducing traditional games to the public through a local traditional games fest
Date:
3rd July - 24th November 2023


After concluding our LDF workshop and exhibition, we held a debrief to discuss our findings. We discovered that, for most people, tradition is closely linked to themes such as food, family, celebrations, and tangible objects.

To further understand ‘tradtion’ , we created mind maps on the workshop and the topic of 'tradition' to document our thoughts, learnings, and challenges about these subjects. However, we felt that our park-friendly traditional games design might have marked the end of the project, as we struggled to envision further improvements.

Mindmaps of the word ‘tradition’ and the LDF workshop. Photocredit: Ruoxi Song

Analysis & insights from our mind maps:
  • Traditions are rooted in sentiment and emotion. 
  • How do they differ from routines? 
  • The frequency of experiencing specific traditions can influence the depth of one's involvement. 
  • Traditions play a role in shaping our identity, signifying a sense of belonging. 
  • While they may not fade in one's home country, they can become less prominent when in a foreign land.

To dive deeper into the topic, we conducted directed storytelling sessions, specifically engaging international students about festivals and associated traditions. Some participants shared that celebrating traditional festivals in a foreign country involves utilizing available resources and bringing people together for festivities. Others expressed less interest in celebrating specific traditional festivals in a foreign country, prioritizing the embrace of the new culture. Aside from that, participants highlighted the importance of oral stories in explaining festival celebrations, emphasizing the connection between these stories and broader traditions.

Data collected from the directed storytelling sessions.

Reflecting on our research, food emerged as a recurring theme mentioned in both the workshop, mind maps and directed storytelling. This led us to consider food as another aspect of tradition worth exploring. Our focus shifted to designing a traditional food cooking experience based on our research and analysis. We also looked at existing projects about gamify cooking. 

Existing projects we looked at. Left: Ikea concept kitchen table. Right: Kushi Express

Ideation process. Photo credit: Ruoxi Song

In the end, we explored concepts such as merging Mahjong and hotpot to combine traditional food with a traditional game. Another idea involves creating a package that includes traditional food recipes and all the necessary ingredients.


Feedback:
  • Mahjong + hotpot seems fun, but the rationale behind introducing gamification needs clarification.
  • There appears to be a disconnect or a less compelling reason for the shift towards food.


Bibliography:

Hobson, B. (2015) Movie: All-in-one digital kitchen table for IKEA suggests recipes, Dezeen. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2015/05/27/movie-digital-table-ikea-ideo-suggests-recipes-leftover-ingredients/ (Accessed: 28 September 2023).