Teaching Gameplay Design is Teaching Interaction Design

This paper describes the benefits of integrating gameplay design in interaction design teaching since this allows students to practice designing for unusual situations, considering ethic and aesthetic issues as well as issues of use and abuse, often all in the same project. Some examples - ranging from a three week group project to a half day exercise - are described, each together with aims and noted learning outcomes related to interaction design, as well as with a general discussion. In addition, a few student projects are described together with learning outcomes. Finally the pros and cons of this approach are discussed, and educators willing to try it, but inexperienced in games, are getting some useful information on what to look into.