Conclusions 6.1 CONCLUSION

To conclude my dissertation, I will reflect on my research project by discussing the two primary outcomes my research project produced: i) the 2K-Reality sports technology meaning-driven innovation, and ii) the Compliant Sports Augmentation Framework. I will also outline my research project limitations, suggest future research directions and discuss broader applications of my 2K-Reality playful design idea.

My research project emerged from my design practice and responds to the design question: How can I design a videogame-based sports technology innovation for pickup basketball that is compliant with the social practice and the spatiotemporal norms of the sport?

6.1.1 Playful Sports Technology

Literature relevant to my design question indicates that basketball researchers and sports technology designers have paid little attention to fun—the primary motivation for playing pickup basketball. Digital sports technology designed for grassroots basketball and other sports primarily focuses on evaluation and measurement, which can devalue fun and enjoyment and the affective benefits of physical activity (Henderson et al., 1999). My research suggests that Côté’s deliberate play theory (Côté, 1999) can potentially underpin an alternative approach to designing digital sports technology for casual grassroots sports such as pickup basketball.

The perspectives advanced by the playful design research community, which includes Gaver, Sicart and Deterding, and the precursor art practices of Fluxus, indicate that a playful design approach may be ideally applicable for enhancing the enjoyment of casual grassroots sports with videogame art. Deliberate play activities and playful design both focus on processes, not outcomes; and prioritise autonomy, experimentation and expression (Côté et al., 2007; Gaver, 2008; Sicart, 2015). Furthermore, theorists such as Pearce explicitly link Fluxus game art practices with contemporary videogame art appropriation strategies; and design techniques that can promote participation, creativity and playfulness (Pearce, 2006).

6.1.2 Meaning-driven Sports Technology Innovation

Design and innovation literature relevant to my design practice indicates that meaning- driven innovation may be different from the current methods used to design sports technology. Norman and Verganti argue that “meaning-driven radical innovation [is] an example of social determinism” (Norman & Verganti, 2014, p. 81); therefore, it presents an alternative to the technological determinism that appears to dominate the design of current grassroots sports technology innovations.

Applying a meaning-driven innovation method with a playful design approach may deliver sports technology designs that respond to recommendations made by researchers in the fields of sports entrepreneurship (Ratten, 2018); sports management, physical recreation and public

health; (Australian Government Independent Sport Panel, 2009; Henderson et al., 1999; Kahn & Norman, 2012; MacCallum et al., 2012); and game studies (Olson, 2015; Sicart, 2015). That is—sports technology designed for casual grassroots sports that can attract investment, promote fun and social interaction, and support the virtues inherent to playful sports practices; as opposed to organised competitive sports.

6.2 2K-REALITY MEANING-DRIVEN INNOVATION

Norman and Verganti describe meaning-driven innovations as radical products that have three characteristics: i) they emerge from interpreting sociocultural patterns, ii) they signify a radical change in meaning, and iii) they utilise an incremental or non-existent change in technology (Norman & Verganti, 2014).

According to this definition, I argue that 2K-Reality fulfils the meaning-driven innovation criteria. However, I temper my claim by acknowledging that 2K-Reality is only an innovation proposal; in other words, an invention. Norman and Verganti concur with innovation studies literature that generally considers the adoption, practical implementation, or consumption of a product a condition of innovation (Norman & Verganti, 2014; Cruickshank, 2010; Fagerberg, 2004). Furthermore, 2K-Reality remains a speculative meaning-driven innovation proposal. Based on my urban probe findings, 2K-Reality achieves a meaning-driven innovation status within limits, which I describe in Section 6.4.2.

i) Sociocultural Patterns

2K-Reality emerged from the socially embodied practice of NBA make-believe, which is common to both pickup basketball and NBA videogames, the two forms of basketball play the 2K-Reality idea blends.

2K-Reality was designed to expand NBA make-believe practices by exploiting the ‘pretending to play in the NBA’ make-believe Reality Principle—the mimicry and make-believe assumptions established by NBA videogames and TV broadcasts.

ii) Radical Change in Meaning

In Chapter 4, I present evidence that suggests 2K-Reality has meaning, changes meaning and produces meaning.

2K-Reality has meaning to pickup basketball players and spectators; urban probe participants in three different countries connected 2K-Reality with NBA 2K videogames and other NBA entertainment experiences.

2K-Reality significantly changes meaning for the pickup basketball spectator(s) performing soundscapes. During the urban probes, 2K-Reality orchestrators actively participated in pickup basketball games by augmenting a playspace with NBA-themed soundscapes. The remediated and recontextualised NBA 2K videogame sounds created a new basketball heterotopia in pickup basketball playspaces.

2K-Reality soundscapes generated meaning within the new basketball heterotopia. As reported in Section 4.6, 2K-Reality orchestrators produced meanings for players and spectators occupying the playspace. Simultaneous orchestrations amplified the aesthetics of pickup basketball, and paradoxical orchestrations contradicted cultural norms. Directive orchestrations attempted to instruct player movements and influence play, and rhythmic orchestrations mimicked hip-hop DJ performances. Each of these performative styles of soundscape orchestration created feedback loops that also influenced the meanings that emerged in a playspace.

In sum, the evidence from my urban probe HCD research suggests these meanings combine to produce a radical change in meaning. 2K-Reality creates NBA-themed plaisir de l’ergo- audition—the joy of hearing oneself playing in the NBA.

iii) Incremental Change in Technology

The 2K-Reality exhibition prototype employs two incremental changes in technology. First, the 2K-Reality installation system is a public access variation of existing technology configurations used in commercial basketball playspaces such as NBA-arenas and FIFA 3X3 event courts, shown in Figure 18 in Section 3.3.4 and Figure 19 in Section 3.3.6. Second, the custom-designed 2K-Reality iOS App mimics the aspects of the Machine Mikro MK2 digital audio sampler and is a specialised variation of other Apps.

6.2.1 Applying the Design Research Quadrangle Framework

In Chapter 3, I present how I designed the 2K-Reality meaning-driven innovation by applying the DRQ (Design Research Quadrangle) framework.

As suggested in Section 2.5, the DRQ is useful as a rich high-level theoretical framework that combines different design approaches, acknowledges the complexity of design, and withholds from prescribing design actions. As a result of my research project, I maintain that the DRQ framework can link practice-based design research to innovation. However, I suggest that utilising the DRQ framework requires designers to supplement the framework with design theory developed by other theorists, and to repeatedly apply different interpretive design approaches during a design process.

Figures 80 illustrates how I addressed my design question and responded to my first research question: How can the Design Research Quadrangle framework be applied to design a sports technology innovation for pickup basketball? The figure shows the trajectory of my 2K-Reality interpretive design process—from my practitioner framework to the 2K-Reality sports technology meaning-driven innovation.

2K-REALITY