PhD in Sciences de l’Homme et Humanités Speciality Ergonomic Psychology Commity in charge

half païdian half ludus interaction-sound-image prototype (Aug. to Dec.) x x x Figurative half païdian half ludus interaction-sound-image prototype (Oct. to Dec.) x x x Figurative half païdian half ludus interaction-sound-image prototype with new music (Oct. to Mar.) x x x x Table 4. Knowledge domains of designers and participants involved in prototypes The different domains represented brought a considerable level of diversity; the diverse domains brought different knowledge and backgrounds in the design process. As we underlined earlier, diversity of the group is important for the construction of the design team in order for them to be creative (Milliken et al., 2003; Nijstad et al., 2003; Paulus, 2010; West, 2003). Regardless of their domain of knowledge, participants involved in the global design process can be categorized according to their affiliation to the design team. The categories are core team, contractual designers, surrounding workers and external participants. te l-0 07 70 99 4, v er si on 1 8 Ja n 20 13 Context and research framework 75 The core team has worked for the Hanabi project from the start until the end and was based in the design studio. This group had access to all the external representations related to the musical video game and had the right to modify them. In addition, they were the ones who provided access to specific design documents to the other designers/participants. Finally, it was one or two members of the core team that conducted meetings with other designers/participants. The core team is composed of two designers, i.e. the project director and the coder. The contractual designers worked for few months with the core team as apprentice or free lance designers. They were generally based outside the studio and they came to the studio for meetings. These designers had access to external representations related to their field of expertise or to their responsibility, e.g. graphic design, code. Moreover, their rights of modification were restricted to their field of expertise and were under the supervision of the core team. There was an apprentice coder, a graphic designer and a musician. The surrounding workers are designers working in the design studio. They had opportunities to have a vision on all the projects developed in the design studio. At some points, they engaged in opportunistic collaboration and thus contribute to the Hanabi project from their own will. In other cases, they contributed when requested. These surrounding workers had access to document and prototype that were presented to them by the core team, but had no right to modify them. The external participants are individuals, i.e. participants of various domain or players, outside the design project and the game studio that interacted mainly with the project director or the entire core team. These participants were at some point invited to come to the design studio or they did so in a more opportunistic way. Thus, they could be asked to play-test and/or discuss about the prototype. These participants only had access to the prototype they interacted with and had no right to modify document or prototype. These designers and participants could contribute to the design project in an opportunistic manner, in an ephemeral collaboration, in medium-term or in long-term collaborations. The designers and participants contributed to the development and evaluation of the video game in different ways throughout the design process. In the next chapter, we will intoduce our research framework. In that respect, we will introduce our problematic and develop the methodology that was adopted in this dissertation. te l-0 07 70 99 4, v er si on 1 8 Ja n 20 13