THEORYCRAFT | Bridging the Games Research-Practice Gap through Theory Translation

Summary
How can theory inform design practice? This question is among the grand challenges in both Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and games research. Despite numerous efforts to bridge the research-practice gap, the two poles seem irreconcilable. Instead of a robust and generalizable knowledge base to tackle foundational problems around technology use, cumulative knowledge building is impeded by weak empirical studies and rampant theoretical misconceptions. Instead of providing practitioners with useful theory-based insights, research results often remain too abstract and not sufficiently actionable to be adopted into design practice.

THEORYCRAFT tackles this conundrum by means of theory translation, demonstrating how theory needs to be transformed and specified to bridge research and design practice. Building on the PI's excellent track record in theory-building games research, we approach theory translation from four angles: 1) We investigate how game design practitioners make use of theory to identify avenues for productive theory translation. 2) We translate theoretical propositions from psychology to build explanatory theories of ill-understood games phenomena. 3) We develop translational resources that convey theoretical propositions in a manner that is useful and actionable for game design. 4) We evaluate the translated theories in terms of their utility to bridge research and design practice. Individually, each angle will result in important advances in HCI and games research. Collectively, THEORYCRAFT will produce a breakthrough in transparent and systematic theory translation, which will radically transform how knowledge is built, represented and disseminated – steering HCI and games research towards greater scientific integrity, practical relevance, and impact.
Unfold all
/
Fold all
More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101043198
Start date: 01-09-2022
End date: 31-08-2027
Total budget - Public funding: 1 471 056,00 Euro - 1 471 056,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

How can theory inform design practice? This question is among the grand challenges in both Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and games research. Despite numerous efforts to bridge the research-practice gap, the two poles seem irreconcilable. Instead of a robust and generalizable knowledge base to tackle foundational problems around technology use, cumulative knowledge building is impeded by weak empirical studies and rampant theoretical misconceptions. Instead of providing practitioners with useful theory-based insights, research results often remain too abstract and not sufficiently actionable to be adopted into design practice.

THEORYCRAFT tackles this conundrum by means of theory translation, demonstrating how theory needs to be transformed and specified to bridge research and design practice. Building on the PI's excellent track record in theory-building games research, we approach theory translation from four angles: 1) We investigate how game design practitioners make use of theory to identify avenues for productive theory translation. 2) We translate theoretical propositions from psychology to build explanatory theories of ill-understood games phenomena. 3) We develop translational resources that convey theoretical propositions in a manner that is useful and actionable for game design. 4) We evaluate the translated theories in terms of their utility to bridge research and design practice. Individually, each angle will result in important advances in HCI and games research. Collectively, THEORYCRAFT will produce a breakthrough in transparent and systematic theory translation, which will radically transform how knowledge is built, represented and disseminated – steering HCI and games research towards greater scientific integrity, practical relevance, and impact.

Status

SIGNED

Call topic

ERC-2021-STG

Update Date

09-02-2023
Images
No images available.
Geographical location(s)
Structured mapping
Unfold all
/
Fold all
Horizon Europe
HORIZON.1 Excellent Science
HORIZON.1.1 European Research Council (ERC)
HORIZON.1.1.0 Cross-cutting call topics
ERC-2021-STG ERC STARTING GRANTS
HORIZON.1.1.1 Frontier science
ERC-2021-STG ERC STARTING GRANTS