Abstract: Participatory design (PD) research has historically strongly focused on the reporting of design events (e.g. workshops and prototyping activities with participants), where issues such as ‘involving...

Abstract: This article examines the role that nonhumans play in participatory design. Research and practice concerned with participatory design mostly focuses on human participants, however nonhumans also participate in the design process and can play a significant role in shaping the process. This article focuses on how nonhumans participate in the design process. An empirical case study is used to illustrate how humans and nonhumans assemble to form networks in order to effect a design. Nonhumans increase the level of participation in a design process. The case study reveals how nonhumans help to maintain, destroy or strengthen networks by substituting, mediating and communicating with humans and often, in doing so, making human actors more or less visible in the process. Nonhumans play a part in configuring the social. Revealing the presence and roles of nonhumans is an important means through which to increase the democracy within the design process.

Abstract: Previous design research has demonstrated how epistemic uncertainty engenders localised, creative reasoning, including analogising and mental simulation. We analysed not just the short-term, localised effects of epistemic uncertainty on creative processing and information selection, but also its long-term impact on downstream creative processes. Our hypothesis was that heightened levels of uncertainty associated with a particular cognitive referent would engender: (1) immediate creative elaboration of that referent aimed at resolving uncertainty and determining information selection; and (2) subsequent attentive returns to that cognitive referent at later points in time, aimed at resolving lingering uncertainty and determining information selection. Findings: First—contrary to expectations—we observed that increased epistemic certainty(rather than increased epistemic uncertainty) in relation to cognitive referents triggered immediate, creative reasoning and information elaboration. Second, epistemic uncertainty was, as predicted, found to engender subsequent attentive returns to cognitive referents. Third, although epistemic uncertainty did not predict the selection of information, both immediate creative elaboration and subsequent attentive returns did predict information selection, with subsequent attentive returns being the stronger predictor. Our findings hold promise for identifying more global impacts of epistemic uncertainty on creative design cognition possibly mediated through the establishment of lasting associations with cognitive referents.

Abstract: The expansion of participatory design, from a Scandinavian workplace context, to also include the public sphere, communities and developing countries, has led to a high diversification of participa...

Abstract: New ideas in organisations are often developed during business meetings and are thus dependent on the local setting and the participants’ abilities to collaboratively ideate turn by turn. Using ethnomethodology and multimodal conversation analysis as its methodological and theoretical framework, this article shows how idea development can be accomplished through the co-construction of a co-imagined space that functions as a resource for participants. This co-constructed imagination space is a theoretical construct which in oriented-to details can be accomplished through (1) organisation of turn-taking during discussions, (2) embodied orientations, and (3) use of local material structures and the environment.

Abstract: This study aims to explore the ways of involving children with autism in participatory product design processes. Due to the impaired skills of children with autism, a key aspect of the proc...

Abstract: To be more successful, innovation projects need a multidisciplinary team to cross and challenge several knowledge fields and viewpoints. However, defining methods to be used by multidisciplinary design teams is not straightforward since a single method has to match different skills and personality types. Our main objective is to provide a new method suitable to such multidisciplinary teams. The goal of Study 1 is to highlight that designers’ specialty (i.e. engineer or ergonomist) has an impact on methods’ effectiveness. For that purpose, we selected two methods for requirement elicitation, one that is generally used by engineers (a subset of EPMcreate method based on logical structure) and one commonly used by ergonomists (the Persona method based on empathetic reasoning). These methods were tested by 10 ergonomists and 10 engineers during individual sessions. We subsequently developed a method called Persona Logical Thinking (PLT) based on the combination of the two previous methods. This new me...

Abstract: The growing trend of co-creation and co-design in cross-cultural design teams presents challenges for the design thinking process. We integrate two frameworks, one on reasoning patterns in design thinking, the other on the dynamic constructivist theory of culture, to propose a situation specific framework for the empirical analysis of design thinking in cross-cultural teams. We illustrate the framework with a qualitative analysis of 16 episodes of design related conversations, which are part of a design case study. The results show that cultural knowledge, either as shared by the cross-cultural team or group specific knowledge of some team members, shape the reasoning patterns in the design thinking process across all the 16 episodes. Most of the design discussions were approached by the designers as problem situations that were formulated in a backward direction, where the value to create was known first. Then the designers were using available cultural knowledge to articulate the unknown what to...

Abstract: It is challenging to design for mutually beneficial relationships in a multi-actor service system when these actors have diverse and conflicting interests, and lack usable methods and tools that support the design process. This study introduces a novel method for co-designing value exchange (COVALENT). COVALENT integrates the value analysis model, co-design strategy and service design tools, to support the conceptualisation of reciprocal value exchanges based on the analysis of and matching between, stakeholders’ needs and resources. Its perceived effectiveness was validated through application to the development of community business models in Ulsan, South Korea. This study contributes to the knowledge of co-design by providing a method for co-designing services that aim to achieve reciprocal value exchanges in the context of community-centred design and by discussing the effectiveness of that method as perceived by users.

Abstract: In this paper, we consider the FabLab as an experimental facility for research, intervention and learning. By providing a space that affords close proximity between users, producers, technologies and materials, the FabLab affords a ‘hybrid hub’ for weaving relations between these. Borrowing the metaphor of ‘the bazaar’, we argue that FabLabs, due to their open and nonregulated character, can be seen as offering what we call a ‘bizarre bazaar’ for exchange, fabrication and knowledge creation. Based on the background of our own experiences with establishing and running FabLab RUC as an experimental learning, innovation and research environment, we discuss how ‘working through materials’ enables new forms of learning and research. We do this firstly by considering lab-based learning in design in general, and design and anthropological theory around ‘Making’ in particular. We then, secondly, move on to consider three cases for knowledge creation in a Fablab context, drawn from current work at FabLab R...

Abstract: Designing participation over time is a challenge that is regularly discussed in the fields of Participatory Design (PD) and Codesign. This paper describes two living labs-cases concerned with designing IT during long-term engagements with communities. Both labs aim to enable participatory exchanges after the designer leaves and are thus confronted with challenges that transcend the time of the traditional design ‘project’. We addressed these challenges via defining the IT design process as scripting, which is a process that better articulates the participants’ different voices and timelines. In this process three types of scripts are made, supported by the facilitator role: personal scripts as portrayals of individuals’ views on issues in the community and timelines to address these; community scripts aspiring to combine personal scripts into pluralistic views on the community and scripts for action as ways to rehearse how the community might unfold after the designer leaves. Key to this approach is that diverse people’s views and timelines play a role in co-constructing IT platforms that support participation in the community over time. By creating IT tools that are enabled by and support scripting, designing for participation over time becomes a pluralistic endeavour.

Abstract: Culture is a broad term encompassing the customary beliefs, traditions, social norms, social habits and values as reflected in human practices and behaviours as well as in religion and art. Culture...

Abstract: The aim of this special issue is to continue and contribute to the debate around the conceptualisations and understandings of participation in Participatory Design (PD) and related areas of human–computer interaction (HCI) research, recently invigorated by Vines et al. (2015 Vines, John, Rachel Clarke, Ann Light, and Peter Wright. 2015. “The Beginnings, Middles and Endings of Participatory Research in HCI: An Introduction to the Special Issue on ‘Perspectives on Participation’”, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 74: 77–80.10.1016/j.ijhcs.2014.11.002), Halskov and Hansen (2015 Halskov, Kim, and Nicolai B. Hansen. 2015. “The Diversity of Participatory Design Research Practice at PDC 2002–2012”. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 74: 81–92.10.1016/j.ijhcs.2014.09.003) and Saad-Sulonen et al. (2015 Saad-Sulonen, Joanna, Kim Halskov, Liesbeth Huybrechts, John Vines, Eva Eriksson, and Helena Karasti. 2015. “Unfolding Participation. What Do We Mean by Participation – Conceptually and in Practice”. In Proceedings of the 5th Decennial Aarhus Conference, Critical Alternatives – Vol. 2, 5–8. New York: ACM.). Ongoing transformations in IT-mediated participation in contemporary societies are challenging us to explore the changing nature of participation in IT design. Some of the questions that emerge relate to the need to rethink notions and practices of participation as they relate to temporality. We are now seeing a multitude of PD research and practice that range in temporal scale, from single projects taking place at one point in time to connected and hard to delineate projects that occur over years. Researchers are starting to acknowledge the significance of PD work that occurs in the background and in-between the typically reported on design activities conducted with participants. Furthermore, we’ve seen recent discussions emerge around the ways activities conducted both prior and after the typical project time of PD can impact and influence research and practice; from shaping eventual outcomes based on decisions made prior to involving participants in design, to considering the long-term sustainability, scalability and transferability of outcomes and learnings. As such, the temporal dimensions of PD are expanding greatly both conceptually and in practice. Our special issue aims to address these emerging areas of interest in PD.

Abstract: Communication designers have historically been accused of neglecting end-user perspectives, believing designers are experts at creating inspired designs. Codesign has been applied to many design fi...

Abstract: This paper examines patient-involvement in the process used to design new hospitals. Denmark is in the midst of a phase of hospital building. This recent experience is studied by means of expert interviews with senior practitioners involved in three projects. Examined thematically, the data covers the structure of the design process, identification and ranking of stakeholders, the methods of user-involvement and approaches to accessibility. The paper adds new insight on an under-studied area, design for hospitals and makes recommendations for a change of approach to user-participation in their design. It highlights the difficulties in applying the methods of user-centred design and Design for All in large projects.

Abstract: Participatory Design has recently seen growing interest in developing critical forms of reflexivity able to disentangle the complexity of participatory ensembles. This article makes a methodological contribution to this endeavour. Drawing on socio-cognitive analyses of collaborative design, it proposes the frame of ‘interaction spaces’ as a scaffolding tool for conducting retrospective analyses of participatory design processes. The paper uses the ‘interaction spaces’ frame to analyse the three years of collaborative activities of the CIVIS Project. Through a longitudinal and multi-dimensional account of participatory dynamics involved in the designing, prototyping and testing of an IT platform for home energy management, the frame evidences how participatory configurations evolve over time; it makes clearer the characteristics of participation as partial and overtaken; and it identifies moments of cross-participation as potential basis for the boundary-spanning of design issues.

Abstract: In an engineering context, ideation flexibility is defined as an engineer’s ability to move between his or her preferred and non-preferred ways of generating ideas as required by the current task. In this study, the usability of three specific tools for enhancing the ideation flexibility of engineers—the Problem Framing Guide, Design Heuristics and Cognitive Style-Based Teaming—was investigated with design practitioners in a real-world setting. The performance and perceptions of 16 professionals were analysed as they explored design problems and solutions using these tools in a 3-h workshop. Study outcomes show that all three tools have value in design ideation, with room for improvement in terms of structured instructions for their use. Additionally, results suggest that cognitive style does not influence an individual’s performance with or perceptions of these tools, which supports their value and validity for a general practitioner audience.

Abstract: Cross-cultural design practices have begun to rise in prominence, but these practices have infrequently intersected with common user-centred design practices that value the participation and lived ...

Abstract: We are indebted to all the participants who took part in our study for having allowed us to become members and feel part of their communities. This research has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (RESET TIN2014-53199-C3- 3-R ), the EU (CIP ICT PSP-2009-4-270965 ), and Fundacion General CSIC and Obra Social ‘‘la Caixa’’. The authors also acknowledge the suggestions made by the reviewers.

Abstract: It is difficult to inform design with experiences from people with dementia. When it comes to involving this vulnerable user group and connecting multidisciplinary design teams, current empathic co-design methods and tools are scarce, seem fragmented and lack a coherent and structured approach. In response, we provide guidance to design teams by proposing a novel, empathic co-design approach that enables a user researcher, who encounters people with dementia, to transfer insights to team members who do not. Our proposal addresses three sequential co-design activities facilitated by an empathic principal designer: (1) individual harvest meetings, (2) collective handover workshops and (3) empathic ideation workshops. Using a case study involving a dementia simulator, we illustrate how the approach contributes to understanding users, transferring insights and translating empathy into design. The positive evaluation of the simulator led us to conclude that the approach not only guided the design team by offering a practical and coherent process, but also enabled individual team members to be receptive, inclusive and committed to people with dementia.

Abstract: In a study aiming to establish the intrinsic value of involvement in a co-design, place-making workshop, we engaged participants in a vision-led development of the grounds and immediate par...

Abstract: Our research contrasts two theories of creativity in multicultural teams. The dual-process model focuses on the degree of diversity, whereas cross-cultural psychology focuses on specific cu...