“We Cultivate Children’s Skillsets”: Figurations of the User’s Body in Design for Play

Abstract

In design for children’s play, the user’s body occupies a central position, not only because of the ever-changing bodily dimensions and skills of child users but because play is seen as a key driver of children’s development. Based on interviews with professionals in play design, this article analyzes how designers figure the child user’s body as being in the making. I identified three figures: the biological body in early childhood development, the potentially unhealthy body of profiled children, and the child as embodied subjectivity in the making. I discuss how these figures become central in how designers imagine the value created by play design as well as their implications on design. This article presents my findings that play designers imagine their design work to create value by stimulating the child’s neurodevelopment, activating profiled unhealthy bodies in high-intensity play, and even forming subjectivities through embodied experiences of mastery and control. Although the analysis focuses on design for play, the article contributes to our overall understanding of how contemporary design relates to its users and strives to improve their health and well-being. Therefore, the article discusses its findings in relation to two themes: twentieth-century biopolitics and design for care.