Blow Bits: Creative playgrounds, gamification and virtuosity with hybrid design tools and environments (HDTE)

Playgrounds (real or virtual) are universal areas where most people learn to play, interact, engage, immerse to unlearn and relearn repeatedly in order to get more fundamental understanding and insights on their creativity, communication and collaboration patterns with others. Consequently, finding out more about oneself in the process. This paper connects research and development of hybrid design tool environments with play, gaming, and gamification strategies and methods for application in multiple domains. We present a playful tool, game environment and preliminary case study from our ongoing research and experimentation in hybrid design tools and environments (HDTE)