University of California, Irvine – Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation / Donald Bren School of ICS
Bank Street College of Education
Founding Executive Director; later Chief Design & Research Officer, Institute of Play
Professor, School of Design, College of Computing and Digital Media, DePaul University
Professor, Design & Technology; Director, Center for Transformative Media; Director of Graduate Studies, Parsons The New School for Design
Associate Professor, Design Program (School of Art & Art History), The University of Texas at Austin
Assistant Professor, Design Program (School of Communication Arts & Design), Virginia Commonwealth University
Katie Salen Tekinbas is a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine. A designer and learning scientist, she works at the intersection of games, human–computer interaction, and education. She co‑authored Rules of Play and co‑founded Institute of Play and Connected Camps, and her recent research focuses on youth‑centered community governance, online toxicity reduction, and equitable, interest‑driven learning in networked play spaces.
A core concept defining how players’ actions and system responses create discernible and integrated outcomes within a game, linking rules, play, and culture to produce meaningful experiences.
A set of eighteen analytical lenses (schemas) for understanding and designing games, including games as systems of information and emergence, as contexts for social play, as storytelling media, and as cultural practices.
A game‑like learning model that structures curricula as complex problem spaces with feedback‑rich missions, designed to support inquiry, collaboration, and authentic assessment in secondary schooling.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CHI PLAY) • Journal
Analyzing 1,920 rules across 60 moderated Minecraft servers—with a focus on 475 rules from 19 youth‑oriented servers—this study shows how community‑created server rules can be leveraged to shape culture, climate, and player experiences. Findings connect rule types to early adolescent developmental needs (ages 7–14) and demonstrate how rule systems can be designed to promote positive experiences and safer, more inclusive play.
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) • Journal
This mixed‑methods, two‑year in‑the‑wild study investigated how socio‑technical governance structures can support 8–13‑year‑olds’ social, emotional, and technical skill development on a custom Minecraft server. The authors present youth‑centered approaches to moderation and community governance that shaped player behavior and fostered ownership, offering an alternative to surveillance‑oriented adult control by elevating youth capacity to manage culture and climate in their online communities.
Multimodal Technologies and Interaction • Journal
Through case studies and a cross‑platform feature analysis, this paper compares communication and parental control mechanisms across popular virtual worlds for youth (ages 5–18). It offers a comparison matrix, evaluates design features that promote safe, positive social interactions, and proposes a method for analyzing how platform design choices influence youths’ communication, participation, and social‑emotional development.
ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) • Conference
A year‑long multi‑case ethnography of 13 families examines how preschoolers select digital media. The paper argues that choices are ecologically situated—shaped by content, child, family, community, and societal factors. It highlights how resource, cultural, and policy contexts support or constrain children’s selections and calls for designers and policy makers to adopt ecological perspectives to better support developmentally appropriate media use.
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW) • Journal
Reporting a six‑month field study of a moderated after‑school Minecraft program for 8–14‑year‑olds, this work translates evidence‑based offline prevention/wellness strategies into online design interventions that foster conflict‑resolution and problem‑solving. Youth established community norms, devised solutions to interpersonal conflicts, and benefited from the roles of caring adult and near‑peer moderators, underscoring the value of online social games as sites for social‑emotional learning.
International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction • Journal
Drawing on a pediatric speech‑language pathologist’s clinical practice, this article surfaces design challenges and opportunities for mobile interaction design to support children with communication impairments. It outlines decision‑making models, argues for clinically informed participatory design, and sketches a research agenda for apps that better align with therapeutic goals and children’s diverse needs.
Mobile Media & Communication • Journal
Using Pokémon Go as a lens, this essay interrogates how access, privilege, and perceived threats shape who can safely participate in pervasive location‑based play. It argues that when players face risks of harassment or violence, mobility—central to the game’s mechanics—becomes constrained, revealing inequities embedded in public space and digital play.
The MIT Press • Book
A research‑and‑design account of Quest to Learn, a New York City public school built around game‑like learning. The book details the school’s learning framework, curriculum maps, and artifacts, showing how game design principles—complex problem spaces, feedback systems, and inquiry—can structure equitable, authentic, and motivating learning experiences for grades 6–12.
The MIT Press • Book
An edited collection that situates youth gaming within a broader media ecology. Contributors explore how young people participate as gamers, producers, and learners; how gaming literacies such as modding and world‑building develop; and how games can serve as gateways to other forms of knowledge, literacy, and social organization.
The MIT Press • Book
A curated anthology of classic and contemporary writings on games and game design spanning 50 years. Organized around core themes such as player experience, narrative, representation, and the design process, it offers foundational perspectives for game scholars, designers, and students and serves as a companion to Rules of Play.
The MIT Press • Book
A foundational text proposing a unified theoretical framework for game design. It introduces concepts such as meaningful play and a set of eighteen game design schemas to analyze games as designed systems, human experiences, and cultural artifacts, offering strategies and methods for creating and understanding games across media.