Internship as a child: what designers can learn through play with children

When designing for children’s play, designers need to understand the people and the context for which they are designing. This paper studies what designers can learn through play when completing an internship as a child, meaning spending time with children in their everyday lives without a predefined agenda. The data material involves reflective letters written by former design students who participated in an internship four years ago, as part of a Master’s course in child-centred design for play. The analysis of the letters shows how designers learn about play, children, designers, the method, and reflection when doing an internship as a child. The paper concludes that an internship as a child includes all the characteristics of learning through play, and appears as a quick and simple, yet insightful, method of understanding how to design for children and their play experiences.