Playfulness in Adulthood : Helping adults rekindle an inquisitive mindset

Kids are spontaneous and creative. They are imaginative and honest. They are playful. Kids can be assigned many positive traits, and in many ways they are exemplary as they engage in the world without prejudice or a particular goal in mind, allowing for that unique openness and present-oriented approach to life that characterizes most children. Fortunately, a lot of these traits follow us into adulthood and help shape how we experience life. But when an adult is being playful, that person has the playfulness of a child, or similarly, when adults are being referred to as carefree it’s often suggestive of immaturity or a childlike behavior rather than an association with light-hearted playfulness. When and why did this attitude become exclusively reserved for children, especially seeing as the benefits of playfulness are arguably just as significant, or even greater, for adults. This project is an exploration of how design can help adults rediscover and rekindle this fundamental and universally applicable attitude. Derived from extensive user involvement the result is three experiments that each manifests key aspects of adult playfulness, to help facilitate individual exploration and reflection of playfulness in adulthood