Giving Adults a Break Through Play

Project Description:

This project began with Ingenium, the organization that runs Canada’s museums of science and innovation, reaching out to our class with a problem: due to COVID-19, Ingenium’s museums saw a decrease in visitors and the organization lacked alternative programming and services to reach out to Canadians virtually. We were challenged to conduct research to understand how Ingenium could expand its reach outside of physical museums, to not only reach people when museums cannot be visited, but also better fulfill the organization’s mandate to serve all Canadians beyond the pandemic.

Our team chose to focus on learning about how we can engage the age demographic of 18-35, which Ingenium outlined as a current gap in the demographics they serve. Inspired by Ingenium’s use of play in their museums and their mission of “unlocking the curious and creative minds of a nation of innovators”, we first set out to answer the following question:
Does play have a role in the lives of adults?

We conducted a literature review to understand play, the role of play in adulthood, popular experiences for adults, the role of play in museums, and adult perceptions of museums. The key findings were that there is no “true” definition for play, play is perceived to be for children despite the fact that adults do play, and that playful experiences can provide many benefits to adults like improving mental health, increasing creativity, improving problem-solving skills, and providing community to name a few.

Having found that play has a role in the lives of adults, it was now time for us to conduct our own research to find out what play means to adults, and how Ingenium can create a playful experience for them. We learned how to conduct a mixed methods study consisting of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. We used UX research practices to design, test, and iterate a questionnaire, which received 158 responses from a diverse range of participants. We then conducted 15 interviews to get a deeper understanding of the “why” of the questionnaire responses. Next, we organized all of the qualitative and quantitative data to conduct comparative analysis. After analysis, we developed insights and recommendations based on what we found in our research.

Through our study, we learned that our adult participants had very busy lives, and despite wanting to engage more in play, they often lacked time or energy. The platform we are developing helps adults take a quick break to play by giving them regular creative prompts, delivered in-browser or through SMS, social media, or email. Each prompt is designed to facilitate a low-stakes, engaging, and hopefully silly experience. Prompts are flexible—adults can do them alone or with others, in person or virtually, and through different sensory mediums.

Our platform will help adults play more while also fulfilling Ingenium’s mandate to reach across Canada. As adults interact with creative prompts, they will see their surroundings differently, moving towards Ingenium’s mission of unlocking curious and creative minds—with some laughter along the way.

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