Groundbreaking Rhetoric and Composition: Kat Gray's Inventive Pedagogy

Playfest was the product of Assistant Director of Rhetoric and Composition Kat Gray's Topics in Rhetoric and Composition class and served as the culmination of the work English students did in the class this spring. The course aimed to consider technical communication through the lens of design thinking and workflow. Students honed their rhetorical skills in a fun, creative way by creating board games.

"This is a lower-stakes opportunity to gain that understanding: students aren't in a situation where they have to produce, sell or market their games, but sitting face-to-face with a real audience playing your game and asking questions is invaluable rhetorical practice. It emphasizes that on the end of every communication we design is a real user who has needs that must be taken into account, if we are going to be successful technical communicators," Gray said.

Teams operated in groups of seven, with the workload divided between five roles: leadership, creative, research, design and writing. Gray chose teams carefully, conferencing with students to understand their skill sets and interests. Based on that information, teams were assembled with regard to balanced proficiencies and shared preferences. The ability to assign five roles to seven students ensured overlap, creating the opportunity for different perspectives to weigh in on various parts of the design process. Overlapping role responsibilities also pushed students to consider that design thinking is fundamentally collaborative, relying on each team member making their own unique contributions.

"We also did play testing and we gave them the set of instructions. And we were like, if you read this, would you understand how to play the game as we intended? We just think out loud. We then had to say 'Oh, that doesn't really make sense,' and then we could tweak the instructions from there," said Abigale Vipond of the board game design process.

Roles had distinctive objectives for the board game project. Students in the "Leadership" position navigated project management, scheduling, maintaining prompt group communication and relaying necessary updates to Gray. The "Creative" position came up with themes, concepts and background information, or "lore," for the games they created. Team "Researchers" managed user research and created surveys, drawing from test data collected during prototype gameplay. These students additionally guided the group in interpreting these results and making choices about how to proceed. With the "Design" role, students played with graphic design for their boards, came up with logos and visual components for instructions and game materials. To fulfill the responsibility of "Writing," team members wrote game copy, instructions and any other necessary material, making careful rhetorical choices and revising along the way.

From empathy mapping to prototyping exercises and beta-testing their board games, this class challenged students to work together to make design choices that considered the user. Building these board games relied on each student's ability to make technical communication decisions, manage their responsibilities and flex creative muscles. With Gray at the helm, Playfest was a great success, allowing students to showcase their diligence to each game. This class is a testament to Gray's talent as a professor and reflects the dedication of English students to thoughtful communication and creative design.