Play Design! Designing games to teach design

The paper describes, analyses and discusses the project Play Design!, an applied research project aimed at promoting the culture of design among high school students through the use of mobile gaming, providing an informal and enjoying way of learning, valorizing and contextualizing Italian and Milanese design across the city. Two mobile location-based games are here discussed: the first — D.Hunt. Design Hunt — is a mobile treasure hunt that allows users to discover some of the most relevant places and icons of Milanese design following the trail of the Zizì monkey; the second game — D.Learn. Design Learn — is a role-play mobile game that involves four teams of three participants each, pretending to be design studios struggling to achieve the renowned Italian prize for Design, the Compasso d’Oro.