Tilde Bekker

Tilde Bekker is Professor of Digital Technologies for Playfulness and Motivation. Bekker is interested in designing playful interactions between multiple people and multiple objects in contexts of play, health and learning. Bekker's research interests include designing tools for teachers and students, intelligent playful solutions for children and older adults, developing and evaluating design techniques for involving users in (early) design and providing support for design practitioners for selecting and tailoring design techniques to specific design projects.

She teaches and does research in the area of interaction design for children and elderly; more specifically, on user centered design methods, designing for physical and social activities and designing for playful learning. She has a background in industrial and interaction design, with a focus on conducting theory-informed design research.

Bekker developed the Developmentally Situated Design tool (with Professor Alissa Antle, SFU, Canada) now used by many international universities to teach Interaction Design and Children and which won a best-practice award in 2014. She is co-editing a special issue on 'Designing for Play as Cultural Participation in Childhood' for Conjunctions - Transdisciplinary Journal of Cultural Participation.

We assume that people can be seduced to certain activities if the design incorporates playful features, such as appealing to curiosity and providing challenges.”