Rationales for role playing in design

In approximately the last ten years, there have been reports of of role playing techniques in the designrelated literature. The paper examines the rationales being given in the literature for its adoption. Three rationales are identified: communication within the design process, the increase of technological complexity, and the experience and empathy of designers. The paper then develops a fourth rationale that could warrant the use of role playing techniques: attentiveness to social change. The literature on role playing shows that the technique has this potential. In our own work, we have run three projects involving role playing techniques. Having monitored these projects from an action research perspective, I examine whether our own efforts were able to live up to the four rationales that have been identified. Positive outcomes, shortcomings and points for further attention and work are reported. I conclude that role playing exercises of interaction scenarios, held in the right setting and circumstances, offers designers the opportunity to access, through own experience, the innovation potential that lies in people’s interactions with each other and with products.