Ilaria Mariani

PhD in Design, Ilaria is Research fellow at Design Department and Adjunct Professor at School of Design, Politecnico di Milano. She designs, investigates and lectures in games for social change as systems for communication and social innovation. Her research – theoretical and practical – mainly addresses (1) the meaningful negative experiences certain games create to activate reflection and change, and (2) interactive narratives, between ethics and aesthetics. The focus is on games and narratives able to meaningfully challenge players to explore civic, social, political, moral or ethical issues, encouraging an alteration of entrenched attitudes and sometimes even behaviours.

Politecnico di Milano


Game Designers as Play(er) Experience Divers

Panel talk, FROG main conference | Saturday, 14th October, 12:15 – 12:45

A part from measuring the artefact usability/playability and its ability to successfully entertain the player, who designs games for social change aims should attempt to verify their communicative effectiveness. Are messages conveyed? How players receive them? To what extent are they understood? Good questions… often neglected.Indeed, as central are players, as it is play(er) understanding.This contribution tells the backgrounds and outcomes of a player-centred framework for designers willing to understand players and its application, and sometime misapplication to about 100 games.

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