This document discusses techniques for participatory design in user experience projects. It describes methods such as diary studies, collages, role playing, paper prototyping, and card sorting that actively engage stakeholders in the design process. The document also provides examples of how these techniques were applied in projects such as designing a student homepage and election workshops. The overall message is that participatory design approaches can provide deeper insights by allowing users to help shape the design through activities and tell their own stories.
3. 3
The big idea: creating together
Engages
stakeholders and
users in the
process
Encourages
participants to
bring their
perspectives
Focuses on
eliciting meaning to
inform design
http://experientia.com/perspectives/creating-togetherbuilding-value-with-participatory-design/
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Designing with the user, not for the
user
―Good systems cannot be built by design experts
who proceed with only limited input from users...
There are many aspects of a work process—such
as how a particular tool is held, or what it is for
something to "look right"—that reside in the
complex, often tacit, domain of context.‖
- Sara Kuhn and Terry Winograd
Profile of Participatory Design
in Bringing Design to Software
http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/bds/14-p-partic.html
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When computers entered the workplace
Roots in Scandinavia, with a
philosophy:
Designers must take work
practices seriously
Human actors rather than
systems
Tasks in context
Work is fundamentally
social, involving cooperation and
communication
http://codesignresearch.com/2012/09/03/spreading-the-participatory-design-approach-in-a-developing-country/
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Influenced design approaches in many fields
Suchman and AI --
Situated action
Brown and Duguid HCI
and knowledge
management -- Design
for learnability
Kyng and HCI -- Situated
design
Holtzblatt & Beyer – UCD
--Contextual design
http://hci.stanford.edu/publications/bds/14-p-partic.html
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Charrettes address social and
civic design challenges
Exemplary participation can:
Include the excluded
Advance the state of the art
Influence the outcome
Deal with difference
Engage the designer
Integrate complex thinking
Make place regional
What makes participation exemplary?
http://designobserver.com/media/pdf/What_Makes_Par_917.pdf
Project for Public Spaces – http://www.pps.org
Photo: http://safsrq.wordpress.com/2012/06/09/shs-charrette-sarasota-community-engaged-united/
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Current influences: Designing with
(not just for)
Agile/Lean
practices
Design studio
HCI for
Development
Design for Good
https://www.wickedproblems.com/2_building_empathy_by_designing_with.php
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There are limitations and pitfalls
Don’t expect participants to be designers
Or technology experts
So, don’t ask the group to start from scratch
Find people who want to participate
But don’t let a few people dominate the design
Read the results in a thoughtful way
Focus on the underlying concepts, not the design artifacts
Don’t assume people can predict what they might do
Or that a design can (by itself) change a reality
Mobile Community Design: Effective Use Of Participatory Design Methods, Jeff Axup
http://www.mobilecommunitydesign.com/2006/05/effective-use-of-participatory-design.html
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Design research:
Letting users tell their own stories
Photos and
videos
Day-in-the-life
Scrapbooks
Diary studies
http://www.globaldesignresearch.com/
Using video to create a story for each particpant
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Diary Studies:
Glimpses into lived experiences
Participants record their experiences
as they happen, over several days or
weeks
Written notebooks
Photos or video notes
Phone it in
Google Voice number
Posting on a private site
Basecamp, Blackboard
Instagram or other shared
blogs
Dear Diary: Using Diaries to Study User Experience
by Carine Lallemand
http://www.usabilityprofessionals.org/uxmagazine/dear-diary-using-diaries-to-
study-user-experience/
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Kits for diary studies
(also called cultural probes)
Diary study kits can be as simple as a
notebook
Create structure or open-ended
Provide a camera or a way to
upload or print photos
Questionnaires and scales can provide
a consistent measure
AttrakDiff mobile survey
Medical pain scales
http://infodesign.com.au/usabilityresources/culturalprobes/
AttrakDiff – www.attrakdiff.de
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Using social media
Create a closed
group or monitor an
open group
Listen and observe or
interact
Closed or open
questions
Sending reminders
Use tools that are
easy and familiar
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Collages: images for a rich description
Explore
Emotional landscape
Relationships
Cultural issues
Design and style
Interpret
The discussion is more
important than the artifact
Photo sources
Flickr or stock photos
Proprietary picture decks
http://3libraschild.deviantart.com/
http://www.ksrinc.com/r2r/download/r2r_projective_techniques_ppt.pdf
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Gamestorming:
New ways to get from A to B
1. Imagine the world – create a
temporary space
2. Create the world – within the
boundaries of the space
3. Open the world – but with
agreement on the boundaries
4. Explore the world – meet goals
within the world’s constraints
5. Close the world – ceremonial
ending at the goal
19. 19Informance:
Role-playing and improvisation
Representing an idea by acting
out scenarios to:
Tell how things work (or
might work)
Explain the interaction
Share and explore the ideas
Good for complex or multi-
person interactions
Photo: http://stinelin.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/2nd-prototype-and-experience-prototyping/
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Co-Design:
Working with design artifacts
Card sorting
Paper prototyping
http://davids-user-centered-design-work.wikispaces.com/Paper+Prototyping
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Paper prototyping: rapid iteration
Also called Wizard-of-Oz
Combines design with
usability testing
Paper Prototyping by
Carolyn Snyderhttp://www.paperprototyping.com/what.html
Photo Courtesy Timo Jokela
The "Computer" highlights the item the user has just selected. A member of
the development team observes and takes notes. The facilitator (not
visible) is sitting to the right of the user.
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Agile Stories: personas + scenarios
Agile can be based on
co-design work with
stakeholders to create
stories
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Social media as a metaphor
Variations on ―design the box‖ using
social media to show relationships
Make a Facebook page to
represent [this]
Write the Twitter feed of a ―day in
the life‖
Choose tools that the particpants
use
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3 mini case studies
Election design workshop
Student home page
If this site was an animal
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Election design workshops and
Open innovation competition
Charrette-like process to work
on a difficult, multi-stakeholder
problem
27. 27Workshop: collaboration and active
problem solving
Brainstorm many ideas
Build from inspiration to
concept to refinement
Encourage inclusive, open
collaboration
Students created the posters
and worked as ―design scribes‖
http://elections.itif.org/projects/design-workshops/
http://elections.itif.org/reports/AVTI-003-Sanford-Milchus-Rebola-2012.pdf
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Open IDEO innovation challenge
3 of the winning concepts from the Open IDEO Innovation Challenge
http://www.openideo.com/open/voting/winning-concepts/
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“Design a student-home page for you”
Step 1: Card sorting
We asked participants to sort cards
into topics:
They have used in the past
They might use in the future
Not interesting/relevant
Don’t know what it is
Work at the Open University for Ian Roddis, with Caroline Jarrett, Effortmark
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“Design a student-home page for you”
Step 2: Design your page
We asked participants use
the cards they have used or
might use to create a
personal home page.
They worked on a sheet
of flip-chart pages
Orange cards were links
to groups of topics cards
They could write on the
paper
They didn’t have to use
all the cards
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“Design a student-home page for you”
Step 3: Tell us about it
We asked participants to
walk us through the page
they created
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“Design a student-home page for you”
Step 4: Transcribed pages
We transcribed the pages
into digital files so we could
work with them more easily.
We were very interested in:
Labels for groups of
cards
Spatial arrangments
Their stories about how
they would use the page
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If this site was an animal
Adding a quick question to
a usability test
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Summary
Three quick and easy ways to add participatory
activities to any usability test or research project
Ask an indirect question for emotional reactions and new ideas
If this site was an animal
What if the rules were changed
Leave time for storytelling
If you ran the circus...
Ask the participant to draw, markup, or assemble a picture
What was the best... worst...
Bring in a picture
A picture of their classroom, or where they study at home
Engages stakeholders and users in the process of solving a problem.Uses activities and process that allows participants to bring their on perspectives and unique ideas to the table. Focuses on eliciting meaning, priorities, and needs to inform the rest of the design process.
situated activity (Suchman, 1987)work-oriented design (Ehn, 1988)situated design (Greenbaum and Kyng, 1991design for learnability (Brown and Duguid, 1992) contextual inquiry (Holtzblatt, 1993)
Roots in Scandinavia:In the 1970s, Norwegian labor unions wanted input into computer systems in the workplace.UTOPIA projet and Nordic Graphic Workers’ UnionDEMOS project in Sweden
situated activity (Suchman, 1987)work-oriented design (Ehn, 1988)situated design (Greenbaum and Kyng, 1991design for learnability (Brown and Duguid, 1992) contextual inquiry (Holtzblatt, 1993)
Example from Sarasota: The charrette was organized by the school district at the urging of the Sarasota Architectural Foundation to discuss ways to renovate the campus without tearing down the Rudolph-designed gym or glassing in the breezeways of Building.Constructed events, like a public hearing, but which allows citizens and stakeholders to have meaningful input while exploring a problem together. Often used to be sure that diverse voices are heard, and that all stakeholders accept the results. Often look like a design studio – with participants creating artifacts to represent design ideas – getting past “talk” to produce more tangible representations of design concepts.
Make Tools: Liz Sanders has extended participatory design research by focusing on the actual mechanisms by which participatory design can occur. She describes how design toolkits can be used to extract creativity from non-designers. These toolkits—pieces and parts that participants can arrange to create their own rudimentary design solutions with little or no craft-based experience—are known as Generative Tools, and contain two-dimensional parts such as paper shapes and photos or three-dimensional parts such as forms with Velcroed knobs and buttons.Older work on Rich Pictures from York had a similar philosophy but was less of a tool kit and more of a process.
Influence of anthropology and video documentary
As with most of these techniques, the story the participant tells may be as important as the artifact
Turning business work into play to get past endless debate. Using games to “suspend disbelief” and explore different ways to get from intitial A to B
Brenda Laurel coined the term.Good for group or multi-person interactions