Play Probes: Understanding young people through playful expressions

Understanding young people can be a difficult matter when one is past that age. Stories of misunderstandings stemming from generational divides are ubiquitous. A virus, such as Covid-19, threatens to create a deeper generational divide and possibly lead to the problem reaching a magnitude not seen before. This paper investigates how probes with play triggers can yield a deeper understanding of today’s youth. By analyzing the outcome of 54 youth-created play probes, clustered themes were identified, and the selected ones have been presented in detail. The preliminary conclusions indicate that the play probes allow access to insights about young people using expressive formats such as construction and fantasy play. This study contributes to design research by illustrating how probes can help learn about the inner workings of the young generations. Further, it suggests that adding play to probes can foster enhanced social interactions in families with teenage members.