Using qualitative research co-design for intergenerational perspectives of online play

In highly digitised societies, children and adults have qualitatively different perspectives of contemporary online play activities, such as children's synchronous use of multiplayer virtual worlds (e.g. Minecraft) with video-chat software platforms (e.g. FaceTime) in the family home. This article explains how insight into these different intergenerational perspectives was gained via a novel research co-design. Philosophically underpinned by the qualitative research tradition of hermeneutic phenomenology, the research co-design involved the systematic implementation of creative, collaborative participatory methods with four Australian families in comfortably appointed research settings. The study identified points of commonality and tension occurring between children's perspectives of online play and those of their caregivers to inform the development of new cultural resources that bridge divergent intergenerational perspectives of online play. Methodologically, it demonstrates how co-design in qualitative research is a valuable approach for exploring the different lived experiences of children and their caregivers in relation to online play.