RESEARCH + STRATEGY + GAME DESIGN
Shifting Mindsets Through Play at the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs
How might the DCLA go beyond funding to support live arts and culture?
NYC's creative sector was hit hard by the pandemic, but arts and culture were and continue to be crucial to the city's recovery. In a six-week sprint, the design team was tasked by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (“DCLA”) with reigniting excitement for the arts and reaffirming NYC's creative identity. We conducted research, identified key insights, and developed a strategy and game, MixMatch, to help DCLA shift from viewing itself as a funding agency to a connector between the arts and government, fostering new collaborations and experiences.
PARSONS, DESIGN SPRINTS, 2024
Group project, Master of Science degree in Strategic Design and Management
CLIENT
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
ROLES
Facilitator, Researcher, Game Designer
TEAM
Napasorn Kijjarouk, Petek Basibuyuk, Annie Lee
Trying out the prototype dice.
Overview
Background
NYC’s creative sectors were hit hard by the 2020 pandemic, with live events suffering the greatest blow. Despite this, arts and culture were at the forefront of the city’s recovery, both economically and emotionally. Four years on, DCLA observed that the sense of urgency and energy to support the creative sectors was waning. DCLA came to Parsons looking for innovative approaches and strategies to reignite the sense of excitement and support for arts and culture, and to “reaffirm NYC’s identity as a global creative capital.”
Team Structure
We each contributed to every phase of the project, from definition to delivery. I facilitated drafting our interview questions, conducted interviews, provided a framework for synthesizing our findings, created personas, and created the prototype and instructions for the game.
Design Process
Definition
Conducted desk research on DCLA’s mandate and the current economic and cultural climate around arts and culture in NYC
System mapped DCLA’s ecosystem to understand potential areas of focus
Refined scope to focus on “the live cultural comeback” and understanding audiences
Research
Developed a research plan and interview questions
Conducted sixteen interviews total–eight with audience members and eight with art producers
Ideation & Synthesis
Extracted insights from interviews and research, which we then mapped and prioritized to arrive at the five that were most important
Translated insights into design principles which served as constraints and jumping-off points for ideation
Identified food and dining as an important and recurring insight
Mapped personas across a range of spending power and engagement to empathize with a broad audience
Mapped stakeholders, revealing DCLA’s underutilized, unique position as a connector between the arts and government agencies with resources and the ability to cut through bureaucratic red tape
Design & Delivery
We created MixMatch: a strategy, framework, and game aimed at shifting mindsets within DCLA and its partners and encouraging cross-pollination and collaboration.
Delivery 1: Strategy & Framework
MixMatch proposed a shift for DCLA, encouraging it to act as a connector rather than solely a funder. The framework was focused on creating new collaborations by 'MixMatching' existing arts, culture, and food experiences in diverse public and art spaces across the city. The goal was to meet people where they are, by localizing experiences and engaging audiences authentically.
Rolling the prototype game dice.
Delivery 2: Game
Shifting mindsets is challenging, and play can be a powerful tool to open people up to new possibilities. With this in mind, we designed the MixMatch game, featuring four custom-built ten-sided dice representing various elements of arts and culture. Rolling the dice generated different combinations of these elements, and prompted ideation around different facets of performances, physical arts, public spaces, and dining experiences. MixMax encouraged DCLA and its partners to explore novel collaborations and unlock exciting opportunities.
Prototype game dice.
Final game dice.
Challenges & Lessons Learned
DCLA brought us a broad, complex brief and did not provide much direction or a clear understanding of what resources were available. This left us with a lot of good research and insights, but not a lot of ideas that we knew could be actionable for DCLA, given they did not want recommendations focused on funding.
It was not until our second client meeting that we learned more about their role beyond funding. By asking pointed questions about their strengths and weaknesses as an organization, we uncovered how they had previously advocated for arts institutions and cut through red tape to connect the right people to make things happen within the complex web of city government. This knowledge unblocked us, allowing us to move forward and arrive at MixMatch.