Participatory Design

Traditionally, customers have believed that design involves a very passive contribution from their end and the main actor that is the designer. Some design methods do allow the users to contribute extensively to research but the design is majorly left to the designers. Additionally, most design methods allow the designer or researcher to relocate to the user’s world, study it and design based on that understanding. Participatory design is a concept that aims to include the end users in the design process. Here, the end users relocate to the world of research and design.

We must note that even though the users act as an important source of information and ideas in participatory design, they are not the final decision makers. However, the users do perform exercises in which they create and design mock-ups of the products (soft or physical) that they would use in specific scenarios. The users also further explain why they designed or built the product a certain way. By examining this process from the beginning and listening intently to the participants, the researcher can gain valuable insights about what the users need. Participatory design also helps separate and validate what the users say they do versus what they actually do.

The fun thing about participatory design is that you can use absolutely anything as a tool for the users to design or build something from. Participants can draw something by using only a pen and paper or build something using lego blocks; the tools can be anything as long as they serve the purpose. By letting the participants show us what matters to them, as opposed to telling us, we are getting more specific and more honest data out of the session.