An overview of DFC research on Playful by Design
How can children enjoy their right to play in both physical and digital spaces, respecting their rights to voice, privacy, safety, freedom from commercial exploitation and other rights?
In the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, all rights matter, including children’s right to play. General comment No. 25 sets out how the Convention can and should be implemented in a digital world. Working within this framework, the DFC’s research sought “to understand what children value and enjoy about free play and to make evidence-based recommendations to the designers of digital products”.
Defining qualities of free play
Learning from research on play through history and across cultures, and reviewing evidence about play in the digital environment, we identified eight prototypical qualities of free or child-led play, and through consultation with children, parents and professionals working with children, we identified four further qualities. Together, these 12 qualities of play provide a language for what ‘good’ looks like for children’s free play in a digital world in general and, learning from this, in the digital world.
Understanding the ecology of play
To transcend the offline/online binary, the DFC developed a new three-part ecological framework mapping how people, products and places can facilitate children’s rights-respecting play in a digital world (see Figure 1). In this 'kaleidoscope of play in a digital world', just as a twist of the kaleidoscope generates new patterns, a change in any factor at any level will affect the possibilities for play.
Digital and nondigital play: what do children think?
The DFC surveyed 1033 UK children, aged 6 – 17, and found that the qualities of play are similar in non-digital (in-person) and digital contexts. Indeed, there’s lots they value in games online – imagination, sociability, exploration…
“[In The Sims] you can also play with the avatars and you can build houses for them … you can do anything you like.” (Girl, 13 years old)
“I feel like I’ve always got opportunities to talk to people with video games. That’s the main point of online, playing with friends while talking to them.” (Boy, 17 years old)
But the survey also found that the pleasure children gain is still greater in non-digital play. And digital play spaces have both pros and cons. Read our case studies of Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, Nintendo Wii, TikTok, WhatsApp, YouTube and Zoom to learn what the experts told us of their ‘behind the scenes’ design problems.
To improve their digital play experiences, children told us they want better design:
- 62% want more features that are easy to use.
- 58% want more creative opportunities.
- 58% want more age-appropriate features.
- 56% want more affordable products and services.
- 45% want more products and services without advertising.
- 44% want better control over who can contact them in the game or app.
- 42% want more products and services that are kind, enable intergenerational play, and where people feel included.
- 42% want products that don’t share their data with other apps or businesses.
Commercial pressures threatening digital play
“The design of digital products and services for play sits within a wider context of products and services that may not be intended for children, provided by businesses that may not put children’s best interests ahead of commercial interests or the demands of the ‘attention economy’.” (Playful by Design)
Unfortunately, commercial priorities cause friction with applying playful by design principles. Applying children’s rights to digital products highlights the challenges designers face in balancing competing priorities relating to commercial and organisational factors, not least children’s diverse requirements when designing digital products. Children are aware of these commercial pressures too, as expressed by one 12-year-old user:
“One thing I don’t like is in Minecraft, you have to pay in game coins to get maps and things and skins. The really annoying thing about that is that you're paying in game money, but … with real life money.”
In our report, Global developers’ insights into Child Rights by Design, we learned more about how, despite developers appearing open to the idea of designing for children’s rights, there’s a huge problem of capacity – and many developers are unaware of children’s rights altogether. The market, social and societal conditions played a huge role in the recognition of children’s rights and the consequent design of the platforms and services.
Designing better – what works?
Statistical analysis of the survey found, possibly unexpectedly, that rights-respecting design produces more pleasure from children than either Premium or Freemium game designs, which comprise sophisticated technical features but exploit children’s attention and love for stimulating interactions.
Rights-respecting design combines design elements that enable children to safely and fairly play with others in other age groups as appropriate to their evolving capacities, with ease of use and privacy regarding their visibility and contact from others. In other words, respecting child rights online is not only desirable but also practical for businesses.
Building on our evidence-based understanding of free play, children’s values and calls for change, the DFC generated its 7 Playful by Design principles.
Playful by Design – to bridge principles and practice
The DFC put the playful by design principles into practice through the freely available Playful by Design Tool. The tool was developed with children, experts and product designers, building on their insights about the qualities of play off and online, as well as our previous research.
This tool is designed to prompt and encourage web designers to develop digital environments whilst considering children’s rights. The tool consists of ‘principle cards’ which set out design considerations to embed children’s rights into digital products and services. ‘Prompt cards’ guide design thinking and help companies focus attention on player experiences, consider design alternatives and translate ideas into actions. The ‘playboards’ within the tool support companies and designers to use the cards in flexible ways.
As Jessie Johnson of the Design Council commented,
“What a fantastic resource. We’ve come across a lot of these resources. This one is exceptional! It’s been carefully curated in terms of the tool’s design process.”
Read further
1. Playful by Design toolkit. Digital Futures for Children centre.
2. Livingstone, S. & Pothong, K. (2021). Playful by design: a vision of free play in a digital world. Digital Futures Commission, 5Rights Foundation.
3. Cowan, K. (2020). A Panorama of Play – A Literature Review. Digital Futures Commission. London: 5Rights Foundation.
4. Colvert, A. (2021). The kaleidoscope of play in a digital world: a literature review. Digital Futures Commission, 5Rights Foundation.
5. Family Kids & Youth. (2021). Playful by design: free play in a digital world: survey report and findings. Digital Futures Commission, 5Rights Foundation.
6. Pothong, K. & Livingstone, S. (2023). Children’s Rights through Children’s Eyes: A methodology for consulting children. Digital Futures Commission, 5Rights Foundation.
7. Livingstone, S. & Pothong, K. (2022). Imaginative play in digital environments: designing social and creative opportunities for identity formation. Information, Communication & Society, 25(4), 485-501.
8. Livingstone, S., Ólafsson, K. & Pothong, K. (2023). Digital play on children’s terms: A child rights approach to designing digital experiences. New Media & Society. 27(3) 1465 - 1485.
9. Pothong, K., Colvert, A., Livingstone, S. & Pschetz, L. (2024). Applying children’s rights to digital products: Exploring competing priorities in design. Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, Delft, Netherlands.
10. Colvert, A., Pothong, K. & Livingstone, S. (2024). Playful by Design: Embedding Children's Rights into the Digital World. ACM Games: Research and Practice.
11. Livingstone, S., Pothong, K. & Colvert, A. (2024, January 11-12). Playful by design: embedding children’s rights into the digital world, Ethical Games Conference [Video recording: YouTube].
12. Livingstone, S. & Pothong, K. (2022). Playful by Design. In Woodfall, A. & Kirkham, H. (eds.), Children’s Media Yearbook 2022 (pp.52-54). London: The Children’s Media Foundation.
13. Livingstone, S., Pothong, K. & Colvert, A. (2024). Call for evidence - play commission. Digital Futures for Children centre.
14. Pothong, K. & Livingstone, S. (2025). Global developers’ insights into Child Rights by Design. Digital Futures for Children centre.