Parsons The New School for Design

DATAPLAY: Mapping Game Mechanics to Traditional Data Visualization

The DataPlay paper, presented at the DiGRA 2009 conference, investigates whether traditional data visualization, dominated by printed and static two-dimensional charts, can be complemented or challenged by game-based forms that let people learn data through play and direct experience.

• The DataPlay paper (DiGRA 2009, Parsons The New School for Design) asks whether games can complement or challenge traditional static, two-dimensional data visualization by letting people learn data through play and direct experience.
• Its core premise is that games, as rule-based systems, reveal the dynamics of complex structures and may offer a learning modality distinct from the short-term visual memory demands of reading charts.
• The authors pose two research questions: whether data can generate "choice molecules" that make play possible, and whether play can reveal new insights in data.