If playgrounds are meant for children, an important question arises: how can children be meaningfully included in the design process itself? This is where interaction design plays a crucial role.
Interaction design focuses not only on outcomes, but on processes, experiences, and relationships. It is concerned with how people interact with systems, spaces, and each other. When applied to playground design, interaction design offers tools and methods that make participation possible—especially for children, who may not be able to express their ideas through conventional verbal or written means.
Children communicate through play, movement, drawing, and storytelling. Workshops that include playful activities, role-playing, prototyping with simple materials, or drawing exercises allow children to express their thoughts in ways that feel natural to them. Instead of asking children to explain what they want in abstract terms, interaction design creates situations where ideas emerge through action.
By creating playful, inclusive, and flexible design processes, interaction design makes children’s participation more accessible and meaningful. It acknowledges that children are experts in their own experiences and that their perspectives can enrich the design of playgrounds in ways adults alone cannot achieve. In this sense, interaction design is not just a method, but a bridge—connecting children’s ways of thinking with the structured demands of the design process.
References
Sanders, E. B.-N., & Stappers, P. J. (2008). Co-creation and the New Landscapes of Design. CoDesign, 4(1), 5–18.r.
Brown, D. M. Y., Ross, T., Leo, J., Buliung, R. N., Shirazipour, C. H., Latimer-Cheung, A. E., & Arbour-Nicitopoulos, K. P. (2021). A Scoping Review of Evidence-Informed Recommendations for Designing Inclusive Playgrounds. Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences, 2, 664595.
Norman, D. A. (2013). The Design of Everyday Things (Revised and Expanded Edition). New York: Basic Books.
Nicholson, S. (1971). How NOT to Cheat Children: The Theory of Loose Parts. Landscape Architecture, 62(1), 30–34.
