Katriina Heljakka

University of Turku | UTU · Department of Cultural Production and Landscape Studies

This thesis provides new ways of approaching adult play. It suggests that in the time of the ludic turn as discussed by Brian Sutton-Smith, adults are showing increased enthusiasm towards toys. The study examines how interest towards toys turns into playful and productive activities at adult age, through actual manipulation of three types of contem...

Previous understandings of adult use of toys are connected with ideas of collecting and hobbying, not playing. This study aims to address toys as play objects employed in imaginative scenarios and as learning devices. This article situates toys (particularly, character toys such as Blythe dolls) as socially shared tools for skill-building and learn...

The article aims to present, analyze, and discuss the attitudes of the three groups of adults—theorists, hobbyists and “everyday players”—toward play(ful) behavior and activities in relation to character toys. The rhetoric of play theorists is mirrored against the rhetoric of organized players (hobbyists) and (nonorganized) everyday players through...

This chapter addresses the material life of toys from the perspective of temporal and spatial trajectories of adult-created toy stories. Drawing on contemporary research on adult engagement with playthings, the chapter presents the evidence of the existence and the multifaceted dimensions of object play at a mature age. Part of the analysis is dedi...

Tourists become involved in or engage with material cultures because they find them useful (Haldrup & Larsen, 2006: 278–286). This chapter investigates the significance of playing with toys, or object play, in the context of tourism. Reflecting on the mutual relationship between tourism and play, Heynders and Van Nuenen (2014) noted the role of the...

Tarkastelen leluja osana sodan kuvastoa erityisesti kuvataiteessa ja mediateksteissä. Lelu- ja leikkikulttuurien tutkijana minua kiinnostavat leluesineeseen solmitut suhteet leikkijän iästä riippumatta ja näiden suhteiden käsittely mediateksteissä, kuten Ukrainan sotaan liittyvässä uutisoinnissa. Kirjoituksen fokus on lelujen representaatiossa, eli...

This exploratory paper seeks to combine findings from toy research with studies on digital object play with an interest in the toyification of the virtual realm, including VR, AR, and XR. The goal of the paper is to formulate ideas on the toyfulness of virtual objects and related toy experiences in virtual space and to give a definition of Virtual...

The 21st century has been described as the Century of Play. The change in current play is particularly noticeable when looking at technological developments. This thesis deals with the technologization, digitalization, and connectedness of play between 2010–2020. The research explores forms of contemporary play, playthings, and players in a time wh...

Playful learning approaches are expected to take a leading role in digital transformation in higher education (HE) (Tonkin, 2019; Whitton, 2022). Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the world impacting education, necessitating the development of new skills (Einola & Khoreva, 2023) meaning that aspects of teaching, learning, and knowledge build...

Tässä luvussa esittelemme kokeilumme leikillisistä lähestymistavoista integroidun yrittäjyyden opetuksessa yliopistossa. Lähdemme ajatuksesta, että opintojen tulisi tarjota todelliseen elämään pohjautuvien kokemusten lisäksi vaihtoehtoisten maailmojen ja tilanteiden kuvittelua. Tämä mahdollistuu leikillisissä lähestymis-tavoissa, kuten tilalliseen...

This study introduces the idea of speculative storytelling to portray fictitious internet-connected toys, namely B*Bots, as a tool to understand envisioned affordances of future IoToys. The study positions speculative toy fiction as an emergent area of design fiction that allows the inspection of future technologies yet to be realized. The Internet...

This chapter focuses on a particular type of adult play, namely toy activism. Toy activism refers to harnessingvarious character toys, such as Barbie, Ken, and Blythe dolls as well as common teddy bears, to highlight andpromote a societal, political, or ethical goal. For example, even though dolls have so far been used to ironicallycomment on the h...

This chapter focuses on a plaything of current interest to young females in the Nordics and Northern Europe-the hobby horse. In a study conducted in Finland, the author explored hobby horse cultures by studying online coverage through netnography: By analysing online media articles, Instagram photography and YouTube videos (collection run throughs,...

During the international coronavirus lockdowns of 2020–2021, millions of children, youth, and adults found their usual play areas out of bounds and their friends out of reach. How did the pandemic restrict everyday play and how did the pandemic offer new spaces and new content? This unique collection of essays documents the ways in which communitie...

During the international coronavirus lockdowns of 2020–2021, millions of children, youth, and adults found their usual play areas out of bounds and their friends out of reach. How did the pandemic restrict everyday play and how did the pandemic offer new spaces and new content? This unique collection of essays documents the ways in which communitie...

The study combines popular culture tourism and regional development with contemporary toy and play research through “toyrism”, i.e. toy tourism. We focus on a specific form of popular culture and storytelling, the #instadoll phenomenon, involving fictional characters, namely fashion dolls, with personalised appearances and personalities narrated by...

Our study focuses on piloting of a playful, participatory and toy-like surveying tool presented in three-dimensional form-the SurveyCube. The motivation for our research was to find out in which ways the tangible tool facilitates intergenerational interaction and co-play by engaging families to fill out the survey together during their visit to a c...

Adult toy play is often disguised under euphemisms such as hobbying, collecting, or “dolling” (Heljakka, 2018). Whereas these terms describe toy use as a leisure pursuit interested in engagement with playful objects, they fail to grasp the psychological and philosophical depth of mature players’ interaction with toys with a face, or so-called chara...

Playful approaches include many benefits for higher education. Here, they denote elements of playful learning that invite students to engage with various challenges related to imagination, innovation, and co-creation. As stated in earlier research, playful learning follows the constructivism approach seeking students be active participants in their...

The claw crane—an arcade game that invites its players to remotely grab a prize with a "claw"—has undergone a long process of development from an eye-catching "steam shovel" to a calculated gambling machine across amusement arcades, train stations, and traveling carnivals. Recently, the claw crane has become a common transmedia object in various co...

In the time of the ludic turn, human life throughout contexts of work and leisure is seen to have become more playful. Despite a growing interest in play in working environments, the linkage between adult playfulness and the materiality of designed interiors remains largely understudied in academic debates. To bridge this gap, this study explores m...

Smart toys are regarded as able to offer possibilities to develop social, cognitive, and behavioural skills (among others); however, while appealing, such claims are not yet substantiated by rigorous and sufficient scientific evidence. The first edition of the workshop on Smart Toys, Smart Tangibles, Robots and other Smart Things for Children took...

Aikuisen leikin tematiikkaan on kohdistunut eriasteista kiinnostusta eri aikoina. Aikuisten leikillisyyden olemassaolo tiedostetaan ja sitä tarkastellaan jatkuvasti enemmän. Mutta onko kyse siitä, että leikillisyydestä uskalletaan puhua enemmän, siitä että leikkikäyttäytymistä oikeasti on enemmän vai vain siitä, että tutkijat ovat siitä nyt enemmän...

Milloin olet viimeksi pelannut jotakin peliä? Oliko viimeisin pelikertasi lyhyt mobiilipelihetki bussia odotellessa, pitkään odotettu viikonloppuseikkailu tietokoneella, pari kolikkoa peli-automaattiin kauppareissulla, matsi sulkista kaverin kanssa, pubivisa joukkueena, sanomalehdestä täytetty ristisanatehtävä tai vaikka lautapeli-ilta perheen kesk...

Three empirical case studies with an interest in character toys—Barbie dolls, Star Wars action figures, and Forest Families figurines—provide insight into the practices of prime players of contemporary toy cultures focusing on their activities as fans and historians of particular toy brands. Adult toy fans preserve and produce new play knowledge as...

Collecting is a major part of the miniaturing pastime, in which enthusiasts collect, paint, and play games with small historical and fantasy wargaming and role-playing figurines. Miniaturists often have large collections of miniatures, and many buy more miniatures than they have time to paint. This quantity of unpainted miniatures is often referred...

Tämä artikkeli käsittelee "Pokémaniaa" eli Pokémon-ilmiön saavuttamaa näkyvyyttä ja sen herättämää keskustelua Porin kaupungin näkökulmasta. Erityisen kiinnostuksen kohteena on rajat rikkova pelaaminen. Kyse on Pokémon GO-pelin vuosina 2016-2017 tapahtuneen "uuden tulemisen" historiallisesta kontekstualisoinnista. Tapaustutkimuksen keskiössä ovat S...

Drawing on a study consisting of 29 multimodal accounts of orgasms, we make visible processes, emotions, and notions of playfulness that highlight the critical role of orgasms in transcending the fleeting distinction between reality and play. As sexual pleasure does not necessarily result from experiencing an orgasm, our data also reveals how playf...

Teknologisoituva leluleikki-Moniaistisuuden ja digitalisaation merkityksistä leikillisen lukutaidon ytimessä Leikin ekosysteemissä tapahtuneet muutokset heijastuvat 2020-luvun leikkiin. Leikin ajankohtaiset muodot muokkautuvat niin leikkijöiden, leikkivälineiden kuin niitä valmistavan teollisuuden luovuuden ja innovaatiokyvyn mukaan. Nykyleikkiin v...

This chapter summarizes and synthesizes key developments within the industries of play and contemporary toy design that address sustainability in toys from two perspectives: first, from the design and production perspective, and second, from the use or play perspective. By drawing on insights from earlier work in the fields of toy and play research...

As a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Finnish citizens started to display teddy bears in their windows. As this activity gained media interest and popularity, it grew into a transgenerational form of toy play, where children and adults participated as displayers and spectators in this visual-material play pattern, made available to a broader...

In this chapter, we discuss the meanings of playfulness, play, and playthings for adult players in the contexts of leisure, work, and pleasure. The focus is on mature players-playborers, kidults, and toy enthusiasts-who in their activities represent major groups of adult players. On the one hand, we discuss how playfulness and play that are usually...

In the contemporary digitalizing environment, toy-play is undergoing a transformation. As playthings are emerging with ‘hidden’, connected technologies, the stakeholders interested in creating new content for play are on the increase. For example, the Internet of Toys (IoToys) offers new possibilities to be used as ‘edutainment’ in both informal an...

When robots are used as part of meaningful play, for example to enhance wellbeing, they can be considered “serious toys”. Our study examines the potential of robotic pet toys viewed as companions, which activate social and emotional experiences of the elderly by increasing their wellbeing. In order to study the benefits of using Golden Pup, a comme...

Recent advances in availability of immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR), large screen display systems, and tangible user interfaces (TUIs) [1], have enabled new ways of exploring, understanding, interacting with, and presenting information. This study presents an immersive virtual collaboration platform, 3D Glue, which can be used to...

This article documents the infinite allure of the cult series according to its own logic: In the spirit of play, what follows is a creative reflection of the author's personal exploration of Twin Peaks through fandom, artistry and curatorship that sets to traverse the boundaries of a traditional academic text. The autoethnographic, artistic compila...

Yrittäjyyttä ei enää ymmärretä pelkkänä yrityksen perustamisena vaan laajemmin yrittäjämäisenä ajattelu- ja toimintatapana, joka on hyödyllistä kaikilla elämänalueilla ja myös työntekijän roolissa. Yrittäjyystaidot nähdään olennaisina opiskelijoiden työllistymisen ja henkilökohtaisen kasvun kannalta, mutta myös keskeisinä työelämätaitoina, joita yh...

This study discusses the value of “toyrism,” the emerging mobile and social play patterns in association with toys through the object-based, but technologically enhanced practices of toy tourism. The study combines the value dimensions of play value afforded in the toys with the value generated in the co-creative activity of toy tourism, involving...

Robottilemmikit, tai teknologiaa sisältävät inhimillistetyt seuraeläimet, ovat yleistyneet hyvinvointiteknologian kehittyessä. Esimerkiksi robottihylje Paroa, joka on Guinnessin ennätystenkirjan mukaan nimetty ”maailman terapeuttisimmaksi robotiksi”, on käytetty terveydenhuollossa edistämään ikääntyvien ihmisten hyvinvointia. Paron kaltaiset luonno...

This paper takes an interest in examining the potential of robotic pet toys as social companions, which activate social and empathy experiences of the elderly and by doing so, increase their wellbeing. In order to study the benefits of using Golden Pup, a commercial robot dog, we designed and performed a research intervention at a senior day activi...

Katsaus käsittelee keppihevosiin liittyvän leikin liikunnallistumista ja (media)urheilullistumista. Peilaan digitalisaation vaikutuksia keppihevosten ympärille kehittyneeseen nykyleikkiin, harrastajiksi tunnustautuviin leikkijöihin ja urheilullistuvaan leikkikulttuuriin keppariharrastajien tuottamien sosiaalisen median sisältöjen ja aiheesta julkai...

This paper views the Internet as a platform that may be used in co-creating art experiences and to support player collaboration. Our research presents an ethnographic study of preschoolers testing an Augmented Reality mobile application that includes connected artwroks as part of a Geocaching letterbox. Driven by belief in the power of play to supp...

Social robots are becoming increasingly common in the contexts of education and healthcare. This paper reports on the findings of the first stage of an exploratory study conducted with (n=16) Finnish preschoolers aged 5-7 years. The multidisciplinary study intertwining the areas of early education pedagogics, smart toys and interactive technologies...

This work-in-progress paper presents a study on mature toy players and their gamified activities related to production of serial narratives of toy characters shared on social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram. Our research builds on two case studies of doll-dramas, or visually and socially shared toy stories, demonstrating how Barbie dolls ar...

We live in a world where co-creation with customers, partners and stakeholders is increasingly common in complex organizational development situations. In terms of gamification, employee motivation, consumer involvement, service design process and collaboration, people want to influence and co-create environments, tasks and solutions (Abril 2007)....

This study explores emerging play patterns around the object-based but technologically-enhanced practices of toy tourism. This popular type of toy play featuring game-like elements entails movement across platforms: physical spaces and digital environments. Through a case study that explored toys traveling as Travel Bugs in the context of geocachin...

This study explores emerging play patterns around the object-based but technologically-enhanced practices of toy tourism. This popular type of toy play featuring game-like elements entails movement across platforms: physical spaces and digital environments. Through a case study that explored toys traveling as Travel Bugs in the context of geocachin...

This paper synthesizes the latest design knowledge accumulated with the Comicubes service design tool and solution prototyping method, and shares some of the lessons learned during the multiple workshops organized. The physical prototyping tool combines two-dimensional sketching with a three-dimensional and open-ended play medium – the cube. The me...

A playful approach used as part of a teaching method in any university subject enhances university students’ entrepreneurial mindset and working-life skills. Playfulness has become more accentuated, and playful approaches in the working-life context have been studied, for example, within management and organizations. In university teaching, playful...

Background. Miniaturing, or painting, collecting, and gaming with miniature wargaming figurines, is a popular, yet vastly underresearched subject. Previous research suggests a multitude of practices and ways of engaging with miniatures. Aim. This qualitative study explores the various elements of miniaturing to both map the phenomenon and build a f...

This article investigates the recent global phenomenon of the teddy challenge (nallejahti) with a focus on Finland. Beginning in March 2020 and as result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Finnish citizens started to cheer up passersby by displaying teddy bears in their windows. As this activity gained media interest and popularity, it gradually grew...

This paper explores the activity of coding with smart toy robots Dash and Botley as a part of playful learning in the Finnish early education context. The findings of our study demonstrate how coding with the two toy robots was approached, conducted and played by Finnish preschoolers aged 5-6 years. The main conclusion of the study is that preschoo...

When you think of empathy, it is a part of what makes us human and humane, and it has become a core component of the Social Awareness competency of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) (CASEL, 2019). SEL fosters the understanding of others’ emotions, which is the basis of Theory of Mind skills and frames the development of empathy (Walker & Wedenben...

This exploratory paper focuses on the technological development of the toy medium with an interest in toys’ capacity to mobilize homo ludens, the playing human. By conducting an extensive literary review on the history and the present of mobile play objects, the study demonstrates how toys have developed from early moving and mechanical automata to...

This paper explores the enhancement of the customer journey at a Finnish ski resort and aims to create a theoretical framework for using gamification in the service design process. We have used the service design method and design tool Comicubes as a solution prototype, which ski resort workers engaged with to create a new gamified concept for its...

This article highlights a study focusing on playful human-robotics interaction with an interest in robot dogs, technologically enhanced play, and ludic literacy. In order to find out how players of different ages react to, approach and employ a robot dog (called Golden Pup) in play, we designed an experimental study with 6–7 year old preschool chil...

Katsauksen keskiössä ovat lelusuunnittelussa ilmenevä nostalginen teknologiasuhde ja vintageleikiksi kutsuttu esineleikin osa-alue. Kirjoituksessa esitelty uutuuslelu, Obsolete Pete (”Vanhentunut Pete”), ammentaa esikuvansa nykyteknologian mahdollisuuksien sijaan menneen ajan välineistöstä ja estetiikasta. Leluhahmon suunnittelun lähtökohtia peilat...

This chapter conducts an empirical study on the Internet of Toys (IoToys) with preschool-aged children in Finland, focusing on the strategies that contemporary character toymakers use to persuade players to nurture, connect and take part in social play. Four English-speaking IoToys were chosen based on their supposed innovativeness, popularity and...

Leikillistyvässä työkulttuurissa organisaatioista muodostuu heimoja, joiden kulttuuri rakentuu toteemieläimen ympärille. Symbolisesti vaikuttavalla toteemieläimellä on merkittävä rooli heimokulttuureissa. Laadullisen tapaustutkimuksemme tavoitteena on selvittää, miten toteemieläinten käyttöön perustuva heimokulttuuri kehittyy kahdessa IT-alan yrity...

Toys both guide and foster the play-and stimulate the imaginations-of players of all ages. The authors investigate adult use of toys as a point of entry to the world play of both transmedia-connected and stand alone toy characters-dolls, action figures, and soft toys. They point to how adult toy players engage actively in world building in their wo...

This paper introduces a study focusing on preschool children’s employment of coding toys as a part of their daily play activities. Twenty preschoolers, aged 5–6 years, and their preschool teachers participated in a three-month study of playful learning and the STEM topic of coding. The main interest was to explore how preschoolers explore, utilize,...

The Internet of Art as in public and connected art installations gives birth to interactivity and participation, which in turn, introduce new challenges, not only to the production of artworks, but also in how to involve the participants and how to evaluate the results of target experiences, such as social connectedness, context, playfulness, and g...

This paper challenges the readers to rethink adult toy play by demonstrating evidence for the rich and multifaceted nature of contemporary adult toy play cultures. It is based on a ten-year period of extensive research among mature toy players and illustrates the necessity of a shift in thinking about the user-groups of toys. The paper as a think p...

Our paper focuses on toyification. By this phenomenon, we point to two, parallel developments: 1) The increasing prestige of toys, which start to find their way in classrooms, art museums, fashion and so on, influencing in this way other languages, and, 2) The deliberate attempt to design products according to toy aesthetics in order to make them m...

Objects have always been used to play, and objectual play has been described as a distinct cultural universe (Hughes 1999, 43-57). The most common objects associated with play in the modern world are toys-artefacts employed in ludic interaction that are either improvised or designed to be used in play. Although toys have become an indispensable par...

In this study we explore the convergence of art and game present in the so-called ‘gamification’ the Sigrid-Secrets, an urban geocaching trail. The starting point for our investigation is the idea that the participants to the ‘gamified’ art experience are committed to interact with the visual artworks they encounter and share their experiences with...

This study explores the relation between playful learning experiences of preschool children and an Augmented Reality application used in connection to a geocaching trail, Sigrid-Secrets. We have created a game-based learning environment based on the treasure hunt of the geocaching game that utilizes Augmented Reality (AR) technology. Augmented Real...

The concept of the Internet of Things defines the idea of the Internet – a global, interconnected network of computers connected to everyday objects, products, and other objects in the surrounding environments. Again, at the heart of the concept of the Internet of Toys lies the idea of playthings that are capable of information processing and commu...

This article reports on the design and evaluation of player experiences in relation to a location-based game (LBG). LBGs seek to move gamified play into the "real world" of cities, parks, and other locations. These games are played in everyday places, where game information is tied to specific locations (Magerkurth et al, 2005). This connection to...

The Internet of Toys (IoToys) as an emerging type of edutainment presents a new research area, especially in the context of learning. This study investigates four connected toys played with in the preschool context. By turning to preschool-aged children and their educators observed and interviewed during and after a play test and group interview se...

Over the next years smart Internet-connected toys are expected to grow significantly in numbers. Our study explores smart toys' potential to deliver experiences related to playful learning. One key aspect of toys, such as the CogniToys Dino, Fisher-Price's Smart Toy Bear and Wonder Workshop's Dash Robot are their game-based and toy-based features a...

Tämä katsaus käsittelee vuonna 2018 Porissa järjestettyjä Mölkyn maailmanmestaruuskilpailuita. Mölkky on suoma-lainen, puusta valmistettu ulkopeli, jonka ympärillä on jär-jestetty kilpailutoimintaa 1990-luvulta alkaen. Katsaukses-sa pohditaan kilpailullistumisen ja urheilullistumisen vai-kutuksia perinteisesti kasuaalisena ymmärretyn pihapelin kilp...

The concept of the Internet of Things defines the idea of the Internet-a global, interconnected network of computers connected to everyday objects, products, and other objects in the surrounding environments. Again, at the heart of the concept of the Internet of Toys lies the idea of playthings that are capable of information processing and communi...

Tutkimukseni lähtee ajatuksesta, jonka mukaan leikin toimintaympäristö muuttuu, mutta leluelämyksen ulottuvuudet ja leikin muodot säilyvät samankaltaisina. Eri-ikäiset voivat tämän ajatuksen mukaan jakaa materiaaliseen leikkiin yhdistyvää leikkitietoaan, vaikka heidän leikeissään käyttämänsä välineet eroavaisivatkin toisistaan. Tutkimuksessani kysy...

Toy research named as an area of academic inquiry is still scarce. Even more so is the realm of toy design related academic publications. The challenge for anyone interested in earlier literature in toy design is that although a diverse body of research exists, it is often difficult to find because of the scattered information spread across differe...

Tässä artikkelissa selvitetään nykyajan verkottuneiden älylelujen soveltuvuutta esiopetuksen välineiksi tarkastelemalla esikouluikäisten lasten leikkiä näillä leluilla. Tutkimme aihetta monilukutaidon, leikin ja oppimisen näkökulmista. ”Lelujen Internet” toimii osana muihin leluihin, tietokoneisiin, mobiililaitteisiin ja verkkoyhteisöihin kytkeytyv...

Tutkimuksessa selvitetään esikouluikäisten lasten suhdetta nykyajan verkottuneisiin älyleluihin. Olemme erityisen kiinnostuneita Lelujen Internetiin liittyvästä opetuksellisista arvoista, opetuksellisesta sisällöstä ja niillä tapahtuvasta leikistä, jonka kautta leikkivälineet on mahdollista nähdä osana suomalaisessa esikouluympäristössä tapahtuvaa...

This study explores emerging types of mobile and social play patterns through the object-based, but technologically enhanced practices of toy tourism. As our case studies demonstrate, object play practices in the digitalizing world are not only becoming increasingly social in nature, but even more mobile than before. As illustrated by our study foc...

The Internet of Toys (IoToys) as an emerging type of edutainment presents a new research area, especially in the context of learning. This study investigates four connected toys played with in the preschool context. By turning to preschool-aged children and their educators observed and interviewed during and after a play test and group interview se...

In this essay, I describe how adult fans of the Star Wars universe engage actively in world-building through world-play. What distinguishes world-play from world-building, as proposed by Wolf (2012), is an understanding that adult toy play involves more than mere collection of toys, the most prominent concept in both hobbyist and theoretical writin...

This paper reports on the design and evaluation of player experiences related to a Location-Based Game. Location-based games (or LBGs) seek to move gamified play into the "real world" of cities, parks and other locations. These games are played in everyday places, where game information is tied to specific locations (Magerkurth et al. 2005). This c...

L'articolo esplora le possibilità di intendere la fotografia come una forma contemporanea di gioco per adulti e come pratica che mira a risultati creativi condivisi sui social media. Il mio materiale di ricerca è composto da interviste a giocatori di giocattoli per adulti in Europa e dagli esiti delle mie attività di photo-play personale. Integrand...

This paper introduces a platform enabling prototypical and manipulable envisioning of experiences related to tourism (such as services provided by ski resorts) through a three-dimensional installation also understood here as a playground. Combining the service design concept of the customer journey with a gamified and playable ski slope installatio...

According to the current curricular plan, learning outside of the traditional educational setting e.g. in outdoor environments, is encouraged. There is a focused movement from the traditional classroom paradigm to a trend driven by the influence of innovative learning approaches. Changing school culture is one of Finland’s four curriculum reform ar...

This study explores the relation between preschool children and smart, connected toys, which show educational promises regarding the Internet of Toys (IoToys). Smart environments, such as educational environments, when combined with networked wireless toys interacting with each other, computers, mobile phones, smart objects, and online communities,...

Tämä tutkimus käsittelee “Pokémaniaa”; Pokémon GO -ilmiön saavuttamaa näkyvyyttä ja sen herättämää keskustelua erään länsirannikkolaisen pikkukaupungin – Porin – näkökulmasta, erityisenä kiinnostuksenkohteenaan rajat rikkova pelaaminen. Tapaustutkimuksen keskiössä ovat paikallisessa päämediassa, Satakunnan Kansa –päivälehdessä, vuoden 2016 heinä-lo...

While the benefits of play have been widely recognized, carrying out activities with toys at adult age is still often seen as stigmatizing behaviour. Some adults solve this issue by referring to their toy activities as either hobbies or collecting. Yet, the primary purpose of toys is play. People may therefore utilize their toys for new kinds of pl...

The Internet of Toys - Character Toys with Digital Dimensions and Connections workshop¹ aims is to use the Comicubes service design method and prototyping tool to envision internet connected toys with workshop participants. This workshop caters for the early stage of the service design process to create product and service ideas for the Internet of...

The purpose of this study is to explore the gamified playground of a ski resort which employs the cultural heritage of snowboard culture in Finland. A winter sport destination is under investigation because the market of winter sport destinations is very specific. The winter tourist is sport and fun-oriented and younger than other tourist groups. (...