Games in early design education - Playing with metaphor

Play and design can be put into metaphorical relation. To do so is to let each inform the other. As part of a larger project, we have used the metaphor of play in creating and using learning resources for early design education, In doing so, it became apparent that the entailments of play, the other metaphors that both frame and are framed by play, needs to be better understood. We discuss seven metaphors related to play: games, exploration, balance of forces, tactility, intrinsic reward, embodiment and rules and how we use these in learning games.