Living Familial Archives
A research-led play system for making intergenerational conversations easier to enter.
Living Familial Archives is a research-led play system exploring how Vietnamese families can recognise intergenerational differences, exchange stories, and build greater confidence around conversations that are often difficult to begin.
Roles
Project Lead · Design Researcher · Game Designer · Experience Designer
Areas
Design Research · Game Design · Interaction Design · Prototyping · User Testing
Recognition
Vietnam's Festival of Creativity & Design — Living Archive | 2026
30th SEAPAVAA Conference | 2026
ADPRex X APARN: Who Speaks? Authorship, Authority, and Authenticity | 2026
INTERLUDE — MA Design WIP Exhibition | 2026
Different generations, different realities
Intergenerational tension in Vietnamese families is often shaped by very different lived experiences, but those differences can be difficult to talk about directly. Conversations around family expectations, relationships, independence, and life choices can easily become personal or confrontational.
What if play could make it easier to talk?
Instead of asking families to confront tension head-on, I explored whether play could create a softer way into these conversations. The final system moves gradually from reflection, to storytelling, to perspective-taking through an activity booklet, a conversation deck, and an intergenerational board game.
"A playful warm-up filled with quizzes, comics, and small activities that help you reflect on how communication works in your family — before asking anyone else to join the conversation."
Designing the conversation
I led the project from research through prototyping and testing, translating research on family communication and generational difference into prompts, scenarios, game mechanics, and physical interactions.
Through playtesting with Vietnamese families, I iterated the pacing, level of conversational depth, rules, and facilitation structure to make the experience easier for families to navigate themselves.
"A deck of conversation prompts that starts light and gradually gets more personal, giving families an easy excuse to swap stories, get curious, and learn something new about each other."
"A board game where the same life decisions can play out very differently depending on when you were born. Players navigate education, relationships, housing, money, and more — turning generational differences into something you can actually see, compare, and talk about."
Making differences easier to talk about
The final experience created small but meaningful shifts in how family members interacted. Participants shared stories that had not come up before, compared generational experiences through the game, and moved between roles as storytellers, listeners, and facilitators.
Rather than trying to resolve family tension, the project created a structure for making differences more visible, discussable, and easier to explore together.