You are here: M2.2 Showcase > Future

PhD project – Sept. 2010 – Sept. 2014
Partners: TU/e Industrial Design, Fontys Hogescholen, and others
Promotor: Ben Schouten
Co-Promoter: Janienke Sturm, Tilde Bekker

PLAYfit – Design research on physical and social interaction and gaming

This PhD is part of a collaborative nationally funded project called ‘PLAYfit’ which aims to create playful solutions that stimulate secondary school students to be more physically active. The main goal of the project is to explore whether and how teenagers can be activated by translating aspects of gaming into physical concepts. I will work on the design, development and validation of a physical gaming environment that is tailored to the needs and motivations of secondary school children.

The project is a collaboration between the User Centred Engineering group of the Industrial Design department of the TU/e and the Serious Games Lectorate of the Fontys University of Applied Sciences (Fontys Hogeschool). Other stakeholders in the project are the physical Activity and Health lectorate of the Fontys Hogeschool and various companies.

The project will follow a user-centred design approach in which various stakeholders, such as secondary school students, gaming experts and physical education teachers will be involved in all stages. The project will have a strong focus on validation of the concepts through design research and field studies especially with a view to develop generalisable knowledge about how to structure and facilitate this type of co-development process.