describing the play of a toy concept

'When referring to toys, the term play value could be the likeliness that a toy will be
played with by the user. Play value could also be used to describe a measure of the
benefit of the play. Play value could also refer to the amount, variety or length of play.
For the purpose of this paper, we will say that a toy has play value if it affords play (i.e. it
affords activities that are enjoyable, captivating, intrinsically motivated and process
focused).
While a designer may believe that their toy concept has play value, the user is the one
that ultimately makes this decision. A toy is in the mind of the user, but a toy product is
in the mind of a designer. Ideally, the toy product is similar in the mind of the user and
the designer. This is not to say that toy products should only be used in the intended
manner, but rather, the designer should have a sense of what the user desires so to create
appropriate play affordances.
Brian Sutton-Smith writes “it is dangerous to pretend we know what a child will do
with a toy just from its characteristics alone; children have a way of doing things with
toys over and beyond the apparent character of the toy (1986, p.38)”. It is true that
children (and adults) can find play value in things that are not toy products (what we call
transformed toys) and children and adults will play with toys in ways that are not
expected or intended. However, when designing a toy product, the designer should ensure
that it affords at least one type of play, thus suggesting play value. A classification, such
as the play pyramid, can be used to determine if a toy product affords play.*

I want to come up with a spider plot to describe the play of a toy concept.
Spider plots would require assigning a quantity to the play value, which might be more difficult to determine than a binary present/not present.
It would be interesting to see the difference between the designer’s intended play affordances and what affordances are
actually perceived by the intended user.


QUANTITY TO THE PLAY VALUE
the difference between the designer's intended play affordances and what affordances are actually perceived by the intended user.



*Barry M. Kudrowitz and David R. Wallace about the Play Piramid