How can theory inform design practice? This question is foundational to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and games research. However, the gap between research and practice is yet to be successfully bridged. 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. Consequently, the impact, relevance and reach of academic HCI and games research is in question.
THEORYCRAFT tackles this conundrum by means of theory translation, demonstrating how theory needs to be transformed and specified to bridge research and design practice. Drawing from meta-science, psychology, and design science 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.
