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Empowering marginalised children in developing countries through participatory design processes
Abstract
Children are usually more competent than acknowledged by adults and designers. Valuable user perspectives are lost if only information from adult carers such as teachers and parents is included in the design process. Participatory projects can be empowering processes resulting in empowered outcomes, i.e. increased physical empowerment of children and products that raise their quality of life. In this paper, a theoretical platform for developing a design methodology for participatory design with underprivileged children in developing countries is presented. The framework consists of an explanation of psychological empowerment in the context of participatory design processes, a definition of participatory design with children, and a model distinguishing between different levels of user participation. Experiences and results from a case study conducted with children using prosthetic legs in Cambodia are described. The case study shows that through simple participatory techniques, children can give designers insight into their needs and desires.
... Children can express their feelings as users, test functionality and usability as testers, provide ideas and creativity as informants, and influence all decisions in the design process by articulating their expertise and life experiences as design partners. However, design usually does not empower children to have the same roles and responsibilities as adults because children often do not have the time, knowledge, and expertise to collaborate with adults in a real sense [30]. There is a delicate balance between empowering children and avoiding overburdening them with responsibility [31]. ...
... The first project comes from the International Red Cross Committee (ICRC), which designed leg prostheses for children under 16 years old in Cambodia [30]. The key to the project is to see children as social actors and subjects with rights rather than as objects of attention. ...
... And in the process of participation, the experience of adult designers interested in understanding their opinions and freely expressing their ideas enhances the children's willingness. For example, one of the children said he gained confidence by answering various questions and completing multiple exercises [30]. ...
Sustainability and sustainable design are more concerned with the physical environment than the social dimension. But design should give sufficient attention to social sustainability for balanced development. Although social sustainability’s definition is vague due to its excessively abundant connotation, power is always core. When it comes to shaping a fair and just distribution of power in society, empowerment is crucial to optimize power allocation. Through historical overview, conceptual analysis, and case studies, this paper argues that empowerment is the core criterion of participatory design because participatory design changes the power relationship among participants profoundly, then summarizes the key elements to achieve empowerment. While participatory design contributes to social sustainability, it also illustrates the inevitable responsibility of design.
... The characteristics of the 26 included studies are collated in Table 3. All but two of the studies (Hussain, 2010;Ruland et al., 2008) were from the second identified decade of the review period (2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019)(2020)(2021). The studies originated from eight countries, with over half of the studies from two countries (USA n = 9, UK n = 6). ...
... Co-researchers contributed less frequently to the implementing (n = 3, 12%), sharing (n = 3, 12%) and evaluating (n = 1, 4%) stages of intervention or resource development. Out of the four studies that engaged pre-school children as co-researchers (Abrines et al. 2015;Carlton, 2013;Hussain, 2010;Stalberg et al. 2016), all employed co-researchers in the refining stage (n = 4), and two studies involved co-researchers in the ideating (Carlton, 2013;Hussain, 2010) and creating Table 4 Quality of studies based on MMAT criteria and sufficiency of reporting of the participatory approach checklist (Abrines et al. 2015;Carlton, 2013) stages of the intervention or resource development, respectively. Seven different methods were identified as forming part of the participatory approach utilized by the included studies, with more than half of the studies using focus groups (n = 15, 58%) as part of their participatory approach ( Table 5). ...
... Co-researchers contributed less frequently to the implementing (n = 3, 12%), sharing (n = 3, 12%) and evaluating (n = 1, 4%) stages of intervention or resource development. Out of the four studies that engaged pre-school children as co-researchers (Abrines et al. 2015;Carlton, 2013;Hussain, 2010;Stalberg et al. 2016), all employed co-researchers in the refining stage (n = 4), and two studies involved co-researchers in the ideating (Carlton, 2013;Hussain, 2010) and creating Table 4 Quality of studies based on MMAT criteria and sufficiency of reporting of the participatory approach checklist (Abrines et al. 2015;Carlton, 2013) stages of the intervention or resource development, respectively. Seven different methods were identified as forming part of the participatory approach utilized by the included studies, with more than half of the studies using focus groups (n = 15, 58%) as part of their participatory approach ( Table 5). ...
In research, participatory approaches involve engaging in the research with people and empower co-researchers to have a voice. The aim of this review was to synthesize the methods and approaches used to enable children, adolescents, and families to be involved in a participatory approach in research conducted to inform development of health resources and interventions aimed at children and adolescents. Key databases were searched systematically using key word and subject heading searches and included studies were appraised for both methodological quality and sufficiency of reporting of their participatory approach. Findings were synthesized using a critical narrative approach. Among 26 eligible studies, commonly reported participatory approaches involved community-based participatory research, codesign, participatory design, coproduction, and user-centred design. A need was identified to involve co-researchers more in the later stages of participatory approaches. Most studies were of low to moderate methodological quality. A wide variety of methods and activities were used in the studies to enable children to participate in the research, but few studies provided sufficient evidence of their participatory approach. This review concludes that reporting of participatory approaches might benefit from the guidelines that acknowledge the dual nature of participatory approaches as both a research method and an approach that enables action and change.
... Participation also builds relationships among stakeholders and Mosan, building trust and solidarity and leading to social cohesion and a sense of community. Stakeholder participation in the design process also increases the local capacities for creativity and problem solving [60]. Overall, the participation of the community and local stakeholders leads to a sense of co-ownership, buy-in, and higher rates of adoption of the Mosan solution [61]. ...
... There are different types of participation characterized by the methods used to engage stakeholders, their roles in the specific phase of the design process, and their involvement in decision-making [60]. The types of participation used by Mosan are inclusion, collaboration, co-creation, and empowerment. ...
... The types of participation used by Mosan are inclusion, collaboration, co-creation, and empowerment. This spectrum is inspired by the design participation ladder by Hussain and can be visualized in Fig. 9 [60]. The types of participation on the lower end are characterized with low levels of participation and low influence of participants on decisionmaking (inclusion), moving towards high (co-creation) and very high levels of participation and decision-making power (empowerment). ...
The health and environmental impact of unsafe sanitation affects more than half of the world’s population. The lack of access to safe sanitation affects disproportionately rural populations in low- and middle-income countries, where progress is also shown to be slower. The sheer scale of the problem, combined with the variability of climate, geographies, and socioeconomic conditions, requires a variety of adaptable, scalable, centralized, and decentralized solutions working cohesively. This paper presents the case of Mosan, an off-grid, market-based sanitation solution, in order to display how such sanitation approaches can contribute to bridge this gap by addressing the communities most at risk. Mosan is a decentralized, circular sanitation solution encompassing the whole sanitation chain from containment, collection, transport, transformation, and reuse. Focused on community-scale systems, Mosan is applying participatory design principles and co-creation to enable community engagement, raise awareness, trigger creativity, and support local innovation.
... The first participant group was children (n:15), referring to individuals under 15 years old. Inside this group, there were studies working with children with autism [31,58,64], children at risk of marginalization [2,32], and children that require prosthetics legs [38,39]. The rest of these studies referred to their participants as children [6,26,27,40,46,55,78,83]. ...
... In this respect, researchers adapted the way they conduct the interviews to different characteristics of the participants. For example, in the case of children, interviews tend to be more playful [38,39], whereas in the case of older people these were in a conversation-like format [35,37]. In the case of refugees, immigrants, and asylum seekers who might present some language barriers, wish-lists and questionnaires were used to simplify the communication process [64]. ...
... Furthermore, there was the flexibility to conduct these interviews on places that were more familiar for the participants, where they could feel more comfortable. An example of this is the work developed by Hussain [38,39] working with children that needed prosthetic legs in Cambodia. In order to make them feel more relaxed when interviewing them, she conducted interviews and an important part of the research work in their houses, even when this represented a bigger investment of her time. ...
In participatory design, different methods are applied to build individuals’ participation and engagement in design processes. Nonetheless, some less privileged participants can face more barriers to participation than others, e.g., being unable to exercise their voice. The literature lacks a unified source that guides PD researchers and practitioners in devising and implementing projects with groups facing more barriers to participation. This paper addresses this gap and advances the field in two ways. First, by presenting an assessment of the current state of the art through a review of 46 participatory projects that involved less privileged participants, it identifies the diversity of participants involved in these projects, and the methods and the stage of their involvement. It also frames three conceptualizations of PD and presents common challenges researchers and participants faced during these projects. Second, based on this analysis, it presents areas for further development and discusses the implications for PD.
... El presente estudio de caso de carácter cualitativo e intrínseco, realizado bajo un enfoque teórico transformativo y de justicia social (Hussain, 2010;Mertens, 2009Mertens, , 2012, busca cubrir el vacío existente en la literatura respecto de la participación de niños en el codiseño de objetos. En él se analizan las dinámicas y los productos generados en un espacio intergeneracional y multidisciplinario de codiseño, del cual participaron diseñadores y niños, y que estuvo mediado por pedagogos infantiles. ...
... Sin embargo, se requiere que los niños estén capacitados y estructurados en la etapa de ideación, con el fin de que su participación sea eficiente (Guha et al., 2005). De igual forma, el nivel de participación y empoderamiento depende en gran medida del contexto y de la cultura del niño (Hussain, 2010). ...
... autonomía, creatividad y la libre expresión, entre otros (Hong, Shaffer & Han, 2017;Hussain, 2010;Rinaldi, 2001). ...
This intrinsic case study aims to understand the role of children in codiseño de juguetes, a process which involved the co-design of toys with students in the bachelor's degrees of Industrial Design and Early Childhood Education, as well as with professors of these two degrees. Codiseño de juguetes was the unit of analysis of this study. The participatory, intergenerational, multidisciplinary space generated by this process was inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach and the Transformative Paradigm and Social Justice. Findings show that the role of children was informative-oriented in stages such as identification of interests and idea creation, identifying a number of pragmatic affordances associated with the toys' prototypes. The active role of children as subjects of rights was revealed in the codesign process when children were able to express freely their opinion and participated in the decision-making processes linked to the characteristics and functions of the prospective toys. Finally, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed in this article.
... In PD, future users are actively and directly engaged in the design process [39]. While children were long excluded from this process, they are now acknowledged as competent design partners [16,23], having credible voices to which to be listened [8,14,25]. Technologies take a more prominent role in children's lives [15,25] and adults have a very different perspective on these compared to children [23]. ...
... While children were long excluded from this process, they are now acknowledged as competent design partners [16,23], having credible voices to which to be listened [8,14,25]. Technologies take a more prominent role in children's lives [15,25] and adults have a very different perspective on these compared to children [23]. While much work has been done, it remains a challenge to truly involve children in design as equal partners [16,24]. ...
... Children discover that they have the ability to make a change [14,25] and feel empowered [11,47] because they can express their values and identity [11]. These values are then considered and valued by adult designers [16,23,24], and enable children to create designs that increase their quality of life [23]. Further, children can learn valuable skills throughout the PD process [25,47], such as working with other people [16], communication skills, and design knowledge [11,25]. ...
Outdoor play activities are one of the ways via which children can acquire a sense of place towards their neighbourhood. Engaging children in the design of these activities through Participatory Design (PD) holds promise. However, knowledge lacks on the characteristics of place-making processes for children, the changing dynamics in these processes, and how PD can contribute to this. This paper proposes a PD method, grounded in literature, to support children in co-creating outdoor play activities for place-making. The method is applied with 42 children in Rotterdam. Involvement of local partners, preparation meetings, and PD materials tailored to children's interests and skills are vital to enable children to design outdoor play activities that are meaningful to them. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Participatory design.
... For example, the use of PD with participants with low-education levels in developing contexts has resulted in challenges focused on a lack of experience with formal activities, lack of tenacity, and lack of creative ability (Mazzurco, 2016;Molapo & Marsden, 2013;Winschiers, 2006). Similarly, challenges focused on the technical expert's ability to equalize power relations, use appropriate activities, and work within the relevant socio-cultural context have also been noted ( In an attempt to understand the causes of these challenges, an increasing number of researchers have investigated PD collaboration, focusing on participation (Brandt, 2006;Druin, 2002), evaluation of participation (Frauenberger, Good, Fitzpatrick, & Iversen, 2015;Gerrard & Sosa, 2014), and participant empowerment (Drain, Shekar, & Grigg, 2017;Hussain, 2010). However, there is a need for a holistic conceptual model to describe the influential components of PD collaboration explicitly, as well as their interaction. ...
... This style of project creates contextually appropriate solutions and empowers impacted communities to have increased ownership over the process and end result. PD has become widely used for the design of information systems (Johnson, Ballie, Thorup, Brooks, & Brooks, 2017; Ssozi-Mugarura, Blake, & Rivett, 2017), consumer products (Demirbilek & Demirkan, 2004), workplace layout (Sundblad, 2010), and humanitarian solutions (Hussain, 2010;Winschiers, 2006). It is grounded in the guiding principles of equalizing power relations, democratic practices, situation-based actions, mutual learning, and appropriate tools and techniques (Kensing & Greenbaum, 2012). ...
... There are several frameworks for assessing collaboration and participation in the PD process. These include participation ladders (Druin, 2002;Hussain, 2010), project evaluation criteria (Schot, 2001), and participation evaluation criteria (Kanji & Greenwood, 2001). Schot (2001) explored the role of participation in technology evaluation. ...
Participatory design (PD) is the process of expert designers and participants from impacted communities working together to create appropriate solutions. As PD practitioners strive to implement more effective, ethical projects, a focus must be placed on designer-participant collaboration, and the factors that influence this collaboration. Existing studies provide value in explaining the level of participant engagement in collaboration, and the way to evaluate this collaboration. However, a high-level conceptual model is needed to clearly understand the factors most influential to collaboration and how they inter-relate. This article presents the PD Collaboration System Model as a tool for planning and evaluating PD projects. The model was developed through systematic literature review and the completion of two projects (involving six first-hand case studies), undertaken with people with disability in rural Cambodia. The model consists of the following components: designer and participant knowledge, activities (for making, telling, and enacting), design environment and materials, society and culture, and the participants’ capacity to participate.
... El presente estudio de caso de carácter cualitativo e intrínseco, realizado bajo un enfoque teórico transformativo y de justicia social (Hussain, 2010;Mertens, 2009Mertens, , 2012, busca cubrir el vacío existente en la literatura respecto de la participación de niños en el codiseño de objetos. En él se analizan las dinámicas y los productos generados en un espacio intergeneracional y multidisciplinario de codiseño, del cual participaron diseñadores y niños, y que estuvo mediado por pedagogos infantiles. ...
... Sin embargo, se requiere que los niños estén capacitados y estructurados en la etapa de ideación, con el fin de que su participación sea eficiente (Guha et al., 2005). De igual forma, el nivel de participación y empoderamiento depende en gran medida del contexto y de la cultura del niño (Hussain, 2010). ...
... autonomía, creatividad y la libre expresión, entre otros (Hong, Shaffer & Han, 2017;Hussain, 2010;Rinaldi, 2001). ...
This intrinsic case study aims to understand the role of children in codiseño de juguetes, a process which involved the co-design of toys with students in the bachelor’s degrees
of Industrial Design and Early Childhood Education, as well as with professors of these two degrees. Codiseño de juguetes was the unit of analysis of this study. The
participatory, intergenerational, multidisciplinary space generated by this process was inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach and the Transformative Paradigm and
Social Justice. Findings show that the role of children was informative-oriented in stages such as identification of interests and idea creation, identifying a number of
pragmatic affordances associated with the toys’ prototypes. The active role of children as subjects of rights was revealed in the codesign process when children were able to express freely their opinion and participated in the decision-making processes linked to the characteristics and functions of the prospective toys. Finally, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed in this article.
... El presente estudio de caso de carácter cualitativo e intrínseco, realizado bajo un enfoque teórico transformativo y de justicia social (Hussain, 2010;Mertens, 2009Mertens, , 2012, busca cubrir el vacío existente en la literatura respecto de la participación de niños en el codiseño de objetos. En él se analizan las dinámicas y los productos generados en un espacio intergeneracional y multidisciplinario de codiseño, del cual participaron diseñadores y niños, y que estuvo mediado por pedagogos infantiles. ...
... Sin embargo, se requiere que los niños estén capacitados y estructurados en la etapa de ideación, con el fin de que su participación sea eficiente (Guha et al., 2005). De igual forma, el nivel de participación y empoderamiento depende en gran medida del contexto y de la cultura del niño (Hussain, 2010). ...
... autonomía, creatividad y la libre expresión, entre otros (Hong, Shaffer & Han, 2017;Hussain, 2010;Rinaldi, 2001). ...
This intrinsic case study aims to understand the role of children in codiseño de juguetes, a process which involved the co-design of toys with students in the bachelor’s degrees
of Industrial Design and Early Childhood Education, as well as with professors of these two degrees. Codiseño de juguetes was the unit of analysis of this study. The
participatory, intergenerational, multidisciplinary space generated by this process was inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach and the Transformative Paradigm and
Social Justice. Findings show that the role of children was informative-oriented in stages such as identification of interests and idea creation, identifying a number of
pragmatic affordances associated with the toys’ prototypes. The active role of children as subjects of rights was revealed in the codesign process when children were able to express freely their opinion and participated in the decision-making processes linked to the characteristics and functions of the prospective toys. Finally, limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed in this article.
... A design process involving youth participation is a valuable means of promoting social inclusion among migrant children and locals [61]. It also guides landscape designers with limited experience in child-friendly environment design. ...
... However, according to Roger Hart's theory of children's participation, interviews, compared to co-design activities such as workshops and child-led action, represent a lower level of passive participation [66]. They do not fully empower migrant children to establish emotional connections with the site through the participation process [61]. ...
Designing child-friendly streetscapes is a pragmatic and effective approach to addressing the limited outdoor play spaces and social exclusion experienced by migrant children living in vulnerable residential areas. However, the existing research and guidelines on streetscape design lack specificity for migrant workers' communities and fail to provide full-cycle design process guidance for real-world practices. By taking a social-ecological perspective and synthesizing the existing literature, this paper develops an integrated design framework with seven indicators to guide three stages of child-friendly streetscape regeneration in migrant workers' communities. The effectiveness of this framework was validated by application in a case project in a typical migrant workers' community in Ningbo, China. The results show that the social-ecological design framework can help maximize opportunities for various children's activities on the street with limited spatial resources. It also contributes to creating inclusive streetscapes to promote social cohesion by integrating social and cultural elements, children's participation, and place-making activities. However, institutional barriers, cultural norms, and limited resources impede children's participation and sustainable operations, which calls for more attention to be paid to "software" building. The new framework and research findings serve as a valuable guide and reference for practitioners in the field of child-friendly environmental design, especially in the context of marginalized communities in developing countries.
... Empowerment may be achieved through participation, but only through a meaningful participatory process. Roger Hart's Ladder of Young People's participation (1997) can help to identify three levels of users' participation: empowered, consulted and included; with the first being the most impactful participation (Hussain, S., 2010). At the 'included' level, decision makers only conduct observation or simple interviews, whereas at the 'consulted' level children have more opportunities to share views on their needs and desires. ...
... Despite the limitations, it is important to always attempt to engage children in participatory processes, and to investigate any possibilities for them to influence the project and children's opportunities for becoming empowered (Hussain, S., 2010). ...
... The participatory design has been introduced to facilitate the process of bringing designers, stakeholders, and laypeople together to identify problems and solutions (Hussain, Sanders, & Steinert, 2012). It can be classified into three stages, namely development of rudimentary design ideas, discussion about ideas with participants, and making decision collectively (Hussain S. , 2010). The purpose of the participatory design is the shift from designers, technical experts, and authority figures to stakeholders and users to provide a social production (Manzini & Rizzo, 2011), and at the same time, it can accelerate the mutual learning among multiple participants (Iversen & Dindler, 2014). ...
... However, the diversity in the provided feedback (Katoppo & Sudradjat, 2015) challenged the accepted notion of exchange of idea (Hussain S. , 2010). In other words, co-design and co-creativity among untrained people would be effective to a certain level, so it went against the finding of a study on co-creation and landscape design (Sanders & Stappers, 2008). ...
The city of Kigali has been experiencing rapid growth in recent years. The city enjoys a variety of natural features such as wetland, valley, hill, and great scenery, however, fast expansion of urban areas and human activities could pose a serious threat to the natural environment, and the ecological sustainability. While wetlands, as nature’s kidneys, bring obvious benefits to both ecology and the socioeconomic environment, they have currently faced several problems in Kigali, such as pollution and the risk of decline in the area. This research is aimed at protection of wetland areas through landscape design, which could have a positive influence on maintaining the natural balance of ecology, as well as citizens’ health and well-being. The site study was Kiyovu wetland as one of large wetlands playing a vital role in the city’s character and spatial structure. The research employed observation, questionnaire, and mapping techniques, and the random sample consisted of 37 residents, workers, passers-by, and young people. Findings revealed that safety, environmental issues, accessibility, recreational activities, and quality of the wetland, were significant factors in order of priority that respondents had stressed over the design of the wetland landscape concept. The proposed concept highlighted recreation areas and the connection with other wetlands and green areas as a whole in the city, and it was derived from survey, mapping the results of questionnaires, and feedback from participants. In conclusion, Kiyovu wetland has an enormous capacity to put the idea of green magnet into effect across the city. However, the protection of wetlands without 1. Site-specific ecological landscape plans representing strategic and design levels in periods of time, 2. Legal requirements, and 3. Public awareness about impacts of wetlands degradation would be far less effective. To set up a campaign and a task force to examine changes can make a huge difference to levels of progress and performance
... The practical prompt to these recent discussions regarding the limitations of co-design per se have also been prompted by projects applying the approach with hitherto marginal groups. Focus on applying co-design to work with particular cohorts, e.g., children (Hussain 2010), indigenous (Parsons et al. 2016), marginal socioeconomic groups (Kumar et al. 2016), patients (Hjelmfors et al. 2018), local government and communities, and others has enriched discussion about the benefits and challenges of the method for development ends. It has also encouraged a reconsideration of the importance of addressing empowerment and inclusion. ...
... Visualizing future design scenarios, including through 3D prototypes and simpler forms, enables broader engagement with design proposals (Kumar et al. 2016). It can also be part of finding appropriate techniques for particular cohorts, e.g., children (Hussain 2010). This methodological innovation can be part of a broader acknowledgement of local, including indigenous, knowledge. ...
... Coates and Vickerman (2010) have argued that children with special educational needs are empowered by having their opinions heard and being taken seriously. Hussain (2010) has warned that PD processes can be both empowering and disempowering, depending on how children are included (e.g., children can feel disempowered if they are unable to understand a design brief). Finally, gaining an understanding of technology (Dindler, Smith, and Iversen 2020) as well as developing design and making skills (Iivari, Molin-Juustila, and Kinnula 2016) are central to a computational notion of children's empowerment. ...
... Despite the limitations of our study, taking the time to reflect upon children's empowerment in PD and infrastructuring processes is important. Building further on prior work (e.g., Yarosh et al. 2011;Thomas and O'Kane 1998;Coates and Vickerman 2010;Hussain 2010;Dindler, Smith, and Iversen 2020;Iivari, Molin-Juustila, and Kinnula 2016), the infrastructural approach to empowerment is an attempt to provide a lingua franca for pursuing children's empowerment beyond traditional project time and design phases. The main strength of our work is that it extends Kinnula et al.'s (2017) classification on children's empowerment by filling in a missing view on empowerment that can be positioned before, after and in-between PD processes. ...
Although researchers and designers have paid attention to children’s empowerment in Participatory Design (PD) processes, there is a lacuna in research into manifestations of empowerment in and as a result of PD processes concerned with the building of dynamic infrastructures. In a response, we conducted a case study in which 10–12-year-olds participated in designing prototypes related to a local nature area and reconsidered existing views on empowerment. The findings resulted in (1) a broad operationalisation of the critical form of empowerment; (2) a mapping of the possibilities for empowerment in informal time frames next to traditional, project-related time frames; and (3) an extended analytical framework for the span of activities considered to be empowering in PD processes. The contribution of this study is a comprehensive understanding and lingua franca to consider children’s empowerment in relation to infrastructuring. This infrastructural view on empowerment allows to include notions of active citizenship and empowerment-in-use in the discourse and analysis on children’s empowerment, placing design participation in a holistic context, beyond the formal participation in the design process.
... Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child [3] states that children have the right for their views to be given apt power in all matters affecting them. Incorporating children's ideas in a design process can elevate the status of their interests, views and rights [4], psychologically and physically empower them [5] and uncover their unmet requirements and desires [6]. Druin [7], Lundy [8] and Abbott [9] advocate for involving children in research to achieve more appropriate and relevant child-centred outcomes. ...
... Involving children throughout the design and development of such health related interventions has proven significant benefits [26]. Finding ways to meaningfully and effectively engage with children in IPM design could help improve functionality and usability of interventions; uncover and identify currently unacknowledged, unstated and unmet narratives, requirements and challenges around children's mobility; and imagine critical and speculative IPM futurescapes [4][5][6]27]. To channel such benefits into the field of IPM design, children need to have their perspectives and experiences valued and attributed the same worth as other stakeholders who have the authority to influence design decisions. ...
This paper considers the possibilities of analysing children’s own designs to contribute to the design of inclusive paediatric mobility interventions. The aim of this paper is threefold: (1) to develop a framework for child-centred design analysis, (2) to analyse children’s designs to explore both quantitative and qualitative insights and (3) to explore how children’s voice could be elevated through design research.
A Child-centred Design Analysis Framework is developed in an interdisciplinary manner, comprising four dimensions including Child, Content, Context and Format. It is used as a vehicle to analyse and code 130 ‘Dream Wheelchair’ designs by children.
The children’s ‘Dream Wheelchair’ designs reference a range of features and priorities, which are gathered into themes through the framework, providing insights into children’s individual and collective mobility narratives, values and requirements. Themes are explored through a qualitative interdisciplinary lens to understand the nature of children’s lived experiences.
The framework promotes child-centred framing through extracting meaning from children’s own designs. It is suggested that child-centred framing and a rights-respecting approach to assistive technology design research can lead to more appropriate design outcomes and improved user experiences for children with disabilities.
... There are no available studies known to the author on a comparative analysis of a wide range of international creative initiatives and the long-term ef fects of maker practices on underprivileged girls. However, comparative studies on participatory processes (Hussain 2010;Whittle 2014;Shepers et al. 2018) mostly from the field of digital design point towards the participants' development of self-esteem, learning-by-doing, and broadening their horizons, which can contribute to their empowerment. Furthermore, studies focusing on gender dif ferences in maker practices (Vossoughi, Hopper, and Escudé 2016;Eckhardt et al. 2021) point out that dedicated attention to educational injustices is crucial to developing a pedagogical sensitivity within making environments, and broadening the definition of making could further contribute to overcoming gendered stereotypes within society and to create a more diverse environment in the maker community. ...
Compared to the aesthetic-and market-oriented mindset associated with mainstream design approaches, social design is traditionally considered to be a field that focuses more strongly on the human perspective and community-specific insight (Kimbell 2011; Manzini 2015). It is also a field that pays particular attention to the cultural and anthropological specificities of communities and takes these specificities into account throughout its processes of research and design. This paper presents a social design project, FRUSKA, and examines it from a semiotic and educational point of view. FRUSKA is a design program for disadvantaged girls aged 10–18, aiming at skill building, raising self-awareness and building agency, in order to advance the participants’ life prospects. In an attempt to understand the community better, several objects were designed by the author and her students, based on preliminary research and inquiries conducted with the target group. Building on the premises of social semiotics (Hodge and Kress 1988; van Leeuwen 2005), these objects were specifically designed for the participants to build and customise during co-creation workshops: the participants could disassemble and personalise these objects in a way that is closer to their own aesthetics, filling them up with meaning as a means to practice agency. The design process, its application during workshops and the feedback from participants are analysed through the lens of intersectional theory (Crenshaw 1989), in order to understand the effects of differences in class, age, ethnicity and identity. The author concludes by discussing whether design can be meaningfully used as a language through co-creation.
... Some studies highlighted an importance of mutual learning and empowerment as prerequisite for codesign with children (Raman and French, 2022;Zamenopoulos et al., 2019;Hussain, 2010). Psychological empowerment, promoting children's voice and facilitating self-expression contribute towards equalising relations and increasing self-esteem in children, as well as confidence and enjoyment. ...
... It was hoped to apply [16] and [17]'s criteria to the breadth of user engagement especially in relation to the involvement of resource constrained people in the development of solutions to UN SDGs. From the information provided it seemed that most activities fell well short of standard definitions of co-creation, co-design or participatory engagement. ...
... The process of co-design also has inherent ethical qualities, as users can express and share their experiences [35]. It can be seen as an empowering process, in which users are involved in the design of products that will raise their quality of life [17]. ...
In this position paper we will discuss the challenges of inclusivity when involving children in collaborative design. The HCI community is strongly committed to promoting inclusive user studies as the way to foster a better understanding of users and their needs. Similarly, researchers in Child Computer Interaction (CCI) are actively promoting the direct engagement of young users. However, inclusivity still proves to be a challenge, with the involvement of parents and guardians being the first step to take. Discussion will be driven by literature in CCI as well as by our experience running a project involving very young children in the co-design of technology to support the development of pre-reading skills. We will present the concept of child as protagonist as championed by recent literature and explore whether and how the community has embraced it over time. We will look at different domains, context and age groups as starting point for a systematic analysis of the available approaches to reach out and be inclusive when running user studies involving children. Our experience with the recruitment of young children and the struggle to make our study inclusive will provide an insight into a dimension seldomly discussed in literature and will enable us to elaborate on open issues for the CCI as well as the HCI communities to reflect on.Keywordschildrencodesigncollaborative designinclusivity
... In the literature, several authors warn about the dangers of tokenism when involving marginalized people in design projects (Hart, 1992;Hussain, 2010). Others have pointed out that there is an opportunity cost to participating in design projects, which can limit the extent to which marginalized people are able to participate (Corsini et al., 2019). ...
There is a growing demand for humanitarian aid around the world as the number of displaced people has reached an unprecedented level. At the same time, the number of community-based design and fabrication makerspaces has been growing exponentially. Recently the humanitarian sector has become interested in how these spaces can help marginalized populations, including migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. However, there have been few efforts to document what types of design projects marginalized populations develop in these spaces. More broadly, knowledge on design with and by marginalized people remains underdeveloped. This study responds to this gap in knowledge, by analyzing cases from three makerspaces that support migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in Greece. Ethnographic studies are conducted of twenty-three design projects emerging from these spaces. These projects are analyzed using the framework of Max-Neef’s fundamental needs to show how they simultaneously address functional and non-functional needs. For researchers, this study contributes to knowledge on design with and by marginalized people. For practitioners, this study helps to document the impact of humanitarian makerspaces by showing how design projects emerging from these spaces can address the needs of marginalized people.
... Luck (2003) states that "participatory design facilitated the exchange of information and enhanced the designers' understanding of the needs and expectations of the future building areas". Turning to another positive aspect, "participatory projects can be empowering processes resulting in empowered outcomes" (Hussain, 2010). Also, motivation is a significant success factor for collaborative and participatory design. ...
The study of the participatory process in architectural design has been discussed for decades, in which the user is directly involved in the design and decision-making in the design process. The collaborative design process is not just a way to influence building form, but it also indicates the dimensions of users and participants. From academic cooperation in the year 2019-2020 between the School of Architecture, Bangkok University and School of Design and the Built Environment, Curtin University, Australia, has an agreement to study and work together for a period of 10 weeks, focusing on collaboration and participation in the construction of an embroidery bamboo pavilion together with the Karen villagers in Banggloy village, Huai Mae Phrieng Subdistrict, Kaeng Krachan District, Phetchaburi Province. This paper focuses on explaining and discussing the process of collaboration and participation in the design and construction of architecture with the Karen people rather than the results of building construction or building form. The methodology of cooperative inquiry draws on experiential knowing which is through a direct face-to-face encounter with the Karen people; place and culture. The practical outcome of the process is a part of the life experience and collaborative practice between students, both universities and the indigenous Karen. Our learning process involves a much number of closer relationships, providing significant knowledge of person through a reciprocal encounter between people and people, and people and the environment. The limitation of the process is time-consuming, financial cost, and the difference of knowledge background of participants. Also, language communication is a significant challenge. It should be bear in mind that the final product was shaped in respect to all opinions, especially of those who will be regularly occupying the space.
... These challenges are prevalent in the engagement of Asian children in participatory activities as they are found to be more reserved in voicing concerns and less proactive to engage in educational dialogues (Ku and Kwok 2008). Asian children tend to be more conflict-avoidant and more passive in participation (Hussain 2010), which may be due to the collectivist cultural settings and parenting style in Asian families (Molitor and Hsu 2019;Shek and Chan 1999;Yip 2004). In contrast to Western societies, inherent conservative cultural attitudes in Asian cultures may cause additional challenges in co-designing inclusive activities. ...
Extending the theoretical frameworks of empowerment, design thinking, and Biggs’ Presage-Process-Product (3P) model to multidisciplinary inclusive education, this study examines the relationship between the learning outcomes of inclusive project-based learning (PBL) and its impact on young learners’ psychological empowerment (PE), learning motivation (LE) and sense of alienation (AL). Quantitative research results demonstrate that participatory PBL can contribute to inclusive education and empower the socioeconomic disadvantaged community in the process. The target group – young learners aged 6–12 years old living in sub-divided flats – perceived their learning more positively and showed a reduced sense of psychological alienation after the engagement in participatory design on their home learning environment. Ninety per cent of participants agreed that the participatory programme has improved the living and learning environment; 87.8% of them assented that their overall efficiency of studying and learning has improved. The findings confirmed that participatory design experiences have significant positive impacts on participants’ PE and LE, whilst alleviating AL. This research adds knowledge to literature related to holistic competency development, PBL, and design thinking in inclusive education.
... Anahtar Kelimeler: Çocuklarla tasarım araştırması, yaratıcı tasarım araştırması, uygulama zorlukları Giriş Çocuklar, kendi sosyal ve fiziksel çevrelerinde edilgen değil etken öznelerdir (Mayall 1994 Çocukların tasarım sürecini bilgilendirebileceği ya da bu sürece dahil olabilecekleri yaratıcı araştırma yöntemlerinde son yıllarda artış olduğu gözlemlenmektedir. Bu yöntemlerin bir kısmı ortak sorgulama (Druin 1999), kağıt kuklalar (Hussain ve Sanders 2012), yaz-çiz, foto-ses ve rol oynama (Hussain 2010) ve drama (Weerdesteijn 2005) olarak sıralanabilir. Genç kullanıcılardan tasarım odaklı bilgi elde etmeyi amaçlayan bu yöntemler olumlu karşılanmakla birlikte, çocuklarla tasarım araştırması yaparken göz önünde bulundurulması gereken uygulamaya yönelik zorluklar ve öneriler pek değinilen bir konu olmamıştır. ...
Yeni iş imkanları yaratarak ekonomik kazanca ulaşmak tarihin her sürecinde önemli olmakla beraber son yıllarda yaşanan ekonomik krizler ve işsizliğin artmasıyla girişimcilik daha da önem kazanmıştır. Endüstri ürünleri tasarımcıları da ürünü tasarlayan ve ona katma değer katan kişiler olarak zaman zaman girişimci bir kimliğe bürünebilmektedir. İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Endüstri Ürünleri Tasarımı Lisans programı mezunları ölçeğinde kendi işini kurmuş veya girişimcilik olarak tanımlanabilecek bir faaliyet gerçekleştirmiş tasarımcıların bu süreçte yaşadıkları deneyimler ve aldıkları eğitimin kendilerine kazandırdığı avantajlar üzerine bir yüksek
lisans çalışması yürütülmüştür. Çalışmada tasarımcının eğitim sürecinde hangi derslerin veya
çalışmaların onları girişimcilik konusunda yönlendirdiği tespit edilmiştir. Girişimcilik ve endüstri ürünleri tasarımı eğitimi konuları bağlamında bir literatür çalışmasının yanı sıra, İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Endüstri Ürünleri Tasarımı Bölümü’nden 1997-2010 tarihleri arasında mezun olmuş kişilerden kendi işini kuran 36’sı arasından 8’i ile yüz yüze görüşme yapılmıştır. Ayrıca yapılan görüşmeler sonrası elde edilen bulgular arasında girişimciliğe katkı sağladığı tespit edilen Değerlendirme ve Yapılabilirlik dersinin yürütücüsü ile de bir görüşme yapılmıştır. Endüstri ürünleri tasarımcısının girişimcilik konusundaki eğitiminden kaynaklanan avantajları iş fikri bulma, yaratıcı düşünme ve sonucunda ürün bazında yenilik oluşturma ve ürünle ilgili süreçlere hakim olma şeklinde sınıflandırılırken, çalışma kapsamında endüstri ürünleri tasarımı eğitiminin girişimcilik yönünü geliştirmek isteyen öğrencilere nasıl daha faydalı olabileceği de tartışılmıştır. Bu bildiride söz konusu çalışmanın bulguları bağlamında, endüstriyel tasarım eğitiminin girişimciliği nasıl destekleyebileceği tartışılacaktır.
... Some studies have developed models that emphasise the levels of participation of resource-constrained people in design activities, highlighting the purpose and depth of their involvement (e.g. Puri and Sahay 2003;Hussain 2010;Nahi 2016;Knizkov and Allinghams 2019). Other studies present models that take into account activities of involving resource-constrained people in design projects, and thus typically emphasise the aspects of codesign process (e.g. ...
Codesign with resource-constrained people living in developing countries is crucial for sustained adoption and use of designed solutions. Several studies have investigated codesign with resource-constrained people. It is, therefore, important to understand what has been investigated and learnt so far as well as to plan for further scholarly exploration of this field. To address this, I applied a systematic literature review (SLR) approach to understand main sources, definitions, and theoretical perspectives regarding codesign with resource-constrained people. The SLR also aimed to understand inputs and outputs of codesign as well as factors influencing the codesign process. The findings portray a multifaceted picture regarding these aspects of codesign. I discuss implications of review findings for the practice of codesigning solutions with resource-constrained people, identify concerns that researchers should have about this field, and offer suggestions for future research in this field of codesign.
... Participation in the public realm can be considered a balancing act between citizens and public servants that could advance to a more democratic construction of citizenship and public engagement (Götsch et al., 2012;Burgess, 2014;Blomkamp, 2018). For example, to promote citizens empowerment (Hussain, 2010) though mainly focusing on vulnerable groups involvement (Blomkamp, 2018). Effective integration of diverse social groups into political and policy frameworks becomes critical to enabling change (Stren, 2001;Uitermark et al., 2012). ...
Participatory methods have been widely explored in the public sector to democratize city-making projects and foster civic engagement. Although well-intentioned, participatory processes still too often exclude citizens. The current study looks for elements enabling city makers to articulate an inclusive Participatory City Making process. Starting from a review of participatory methods, we distilled the conditions necessary to consider a participatory process inclusive. In order to understand inclusiveness in practice, we performed interviews with a diverse group of city makers in an ongoing local participation process. The result is a framework that offers eight moments of reflection for public sector city makers to articulate more inclusive Participatory City-Making processes.
... REBUILD considered PD in this context due to its high potential for enabling users to be active contributors during the development of computer-related products and activities (Greenbaum 1991;Muller and Druin 2012). PD promotes the empowerment of users (Hussain 2010) and their role as design partners for designing systems while building a connection and promoting active work among its targeted population group and its developers (Duarte et al. 2018). Iterative actions in PD are required to achieve a final design of an artefact that addresses participants' requirements and ideas. ...
The current crisis of participation and crisis of engagement of Western societies also affects the application and the validity of the participatory design methodology. Traditional techniques to collaboratively design future solutions with the users and bring their knowledge to the technology application might not no longer be sufficient for the complex nature of our societies. This paper describes the applied research and design of a Digital Companion with AI-based profiling, needs matching, and service-access supporting chatbots. The objective of the Digital Companion is to enhance both the effectiveness of the services currently provided to migrants and refugees by local public administration and organizations, and the life quality of the migrants themselves. The adoption of participatory, iterative, and experimental co-creation approaches allowed to contribute to the innovation of the participatory design framework at a theoretical and methodological level, as is required in order to turn participation into action, to go beyond the mere public consultation and to find new pathways for involving all the citizens (not only migrants or local service providers) as a first step to build a successful project.
... Children are lived experience experts in their own mobility and so their perceptions, opinions and ideas around their mobility are of significant value in an IPM design process. Incorporating children's voices, perspectives, requirements, and rights, centrally in the design process can elevate the status of their interests and views (Can & İnalhan, 2017), psychologically and physically empower them (Hussain, 2010), better understand user experiences (Desmet & Dijkhuis, 2003) and reveal unmet requirements and desires (Yamada-Rice, 2019). In the context of IPM design, this could uncover currently unacknowledged, unstated and unmet narratives, requirements, and challenges around children's mobility, and identify child-centred design opportunities to improve the desirability, functionality and usability of interventional outcomes. ...
The design of inclusive paediatric mobility (IPM) interventions, such as children's wheelchairs, are entangled with technological, health and social considerations. As narratives around childhood, disability and mobility shift and transform, these entanglements evolve. In order to optimise the experience of childhood mobility, IPM designers must understand and respond to such changes and channel children's own requirements, desires and 'dreams' into the design process; this can be achieved by utilising a child-centred design approach. This paper identifies meaningful child-centred IPM design insights and opportunities through the interdisciplinary analysis of 130 dream wheelchair designs by disabled children, aged 4 to 17 years. A novel interdisciplinary and child-centred design analysis framework is developed to dissect, categorise and code the topics and features expressed through visuals and written descriptions in each of the children's dream wheelchair designs. Children's mobility narratives, desires and requirements are elicited and trending topics are discussed. It is proposed that valuing children's voices in the IPM design process could alter both the process of designing IPM interventions as well as the product outcomes.
... La participación ciudadana infantil ha florecido cuantitativamente en las últimas tres décadas, pero en algunas instancias puede tener simplemente un rol simbólico, de ornamento e incluso manipulativo (Hussain, 2010;Iluts & Hart, 1995). Los NNA pueden, de hecho, ser utilizados para legitimar las propuestas iniciales de los organismos públicos. ...
Este documento presenta las experiencias de diseño urbano participativo de espacios públicos con perspectiva de infancia en Santiago (Chile), Cuenca (Ecuador) y Rosario (Argentina). A través de un análisis crítico de los aspectos metodológicos e institucionales, se formulan recomendaciones para una inclusión efectiva de los niños, niñas y adolescentes (NNA), en el proceso de diseño urbano en ciudades chilenas.
This document presents the experiences of participatory urban design of public spaces with a childhood perspective in Santiago (Chile), Cuenca (Ecuador) and Rosario (Argentina). Through a critical analysis of the methodological and institutional aspects, recommendations are made for the effective inclusion of children and adolescents in the urban design process in Chilean cities.
... Children are lived experience experts in their own mobility and so their perceptions, opinions and ideas around their mobility are of significant value in an IPM design process. Incorporating children's voices, perspectives, requirements, and rights, centrally in the design process can elevate the status of their interests and views (Can & İnalhan, 2017), psychologically and physically empower them (Hussain, 2010), better understand user experiences (Desmet & Dijkhuis, 2003) and reveal unmet requirements and desires (Yamada-Rice, 2019). In the context of IPM design, this could uncover currently unacknowledged, unstated and unmet narratives, requirements, and challenges around children's mobility, and identify child-centred design opportunities to improve the desirability, functionality and usability of interventional outcomes. ...
The design of inclusive paediatric mobility (IPM) interventions, such as children's wheelchairs, are entangled with technological, health and social considerations. As narratives around childhood, disability and mobility shift and transform, these entanglements evolve. In order to optimise the experience of childhood mobility, IPM designers must understand and respond to such changes and channel children's own requirements, desires and 'dreams' into the design process; this can be achieved by utilising a child-centred design approach. This paper identifies meaningful child-centred IPM design insights and opportunities through the interdisciplinary analysis of 130 dream wheelchair designs by disabled children, aged 4 to 17 years. A novel interdisciplinary and child-centred design analysis framework is developed to dissect, categorise and code the topics and features expressed through visuals and written descriptions in each of the children's dream wheelchair designs. Children's mobility narratives, desires and requirements are elicited and trending topics are discussed. It is proposed that valuing children's voices in the IPM design process could alter both the process of designing IPM interventions as well as the product outcomes.
... One of the key goals of Park Farm Play is to connect the surrounding neighborhoods with public space. Local participation in customizing the public space reflects the idea that those who are affected by a given project like Park Farm Play should be given the opportunity to influence the design and subsequent use (Hussain 2010). Keeping with this, the recreational space in Park Farm Play may change with different community needs in different cities. ...
The intensive course abroad, Responsive Urban Environments (RUE), brings students from the United States and Italy together to discuss why designers and engineers need to consider relationships between the built environment and nature to solve global challenges. In the fall of 2018 and 2019, Drexel University students met with students from the Politecnico di Milano for two weeks in Lecco, Italy to develop RUE solutions for the Porta Genova district in Milan. The Responsive Urban Environment looks at the city through the lens of ecosystem management. RUE considers the city as a complex network of interrelated systems that rely on each other to maintain system balance. A dialogue of hardscape to landscape, city infrastructure is comprised of buildings, roads and bridges with respect to green public space, waterways and food access – home to humans, plants and animals, the glue of its ecosystem crossed by issues related to public health, the watershed and biodiversity. Ecosystems themselves are complex adaptive systems that require flexibility and the capacity to respond to environmental feedback to cope with change and uncertainty. The well-tempered RUE is a low-energy sustainable city. Given the global sustainability objectives and commitments to the decarbonization of different sectors of the economy by 2050, understanding environmental processes and systems helps to develop design strategies that inherently aim at optimizing resource use, reducing waste and limiting impacts on the environment. Developing strategies for the RUE is critical to ensure a low-carbon future for our planet. The proportion of the world’s population living in cities has steadily increased over the past century from 14 percent in the year 1900 to 50/50 in 2007. While more people are living in cities than in the countryside today, an estimated 70 percent of people are expected to be urbanites by the year 2050 – which is why RUE research is imperative today.
... By employing roles that define levels of participation, some researchers have proposed that more involved roles increase children's power in the design process (e.g. [27]). Others have used benchmarks of power to evaluate the quality of children's participation in design (e.g. ...
The involvement of developmentally diverse children in design has been driven by pragmatic concerns and also an emancipatory aim to give children voice and agency over decisions. However, little attention has been given to how participation and power are performed in the early exploratory phase of design prior to overt decision points. Our research seeks to contribute to this gap with two separate case studies of design involvement, one with dyslexic children and the other with children with cerebral palsy. An analysis of children’s and researchers’ power dynamics during design sessions supports us to understand the contextual factors shaping how the different participants exercised power; the outcomes of this power and to reflect on how these moments shaped the design agenda. Our work identifies a number of challenges and raises new questions that may guide future reflexive participatory practice with developmentally diverse children.
... Calls for more reflexivity on the impact of researchers on designs often lack engagement with researchers' identities, engaging instead with character using auto-ethnography [41], practitioner's knowledge and self-perception [51] or with respective roles within the research process [49]. This is especially highlighted in participatory design with children, or disabled people, who are perceived as participants with abilities and modes of engagements that differ from what is commonly expected [35]. ...
... Chamberlain (2013) describes and reflects on different mechanisms for engagement such as using conceptual designs to facilitate conversations or using immersion sessions to surface learnings, later to be used in designing along with rural communities in West Wales. Hussain (2010) proposes a framework for psychological empowerment in the context of PD processes with children in Cambodia. This participatory, community-tailored approach to design contrasts with Universal Design, developed by Steinfield in 2012, which argues for design that optimizes for as large a user group as possible, as opposed to tailored and localized design that PD proposes. ...
... Participatory design in a specific case such as historical heritage should limit to the requests and desires on the outcome and output of the action than participation in the design process. Indeed, for creating a consensus among users need to follow the process of decision making similar to Dyson, Hussain, Iversen, and Manzini, the research achieved to great result for the selection of the design approach as conservation-rehabilitation (Dyson, 2004;Hussain, 2010;Hussain, et al., 2012;Iversen & Dindler, 2014). However, the discussion some professional aspects and detail parts of design could not reach to the expected design solution. ...
This paper aims to demonstrate the conservation process of historic underground water access or Payab by proposing a multistage decision-making design in Gonabad city, northeast part of Iran. The Payab was in the center axis of a street in the proposed development of a new road which appeared to be against the new construction. The challenge was to develop the new road in the central axis without disturbing much the historic structure in the location. Hence, a request was made to keep both the new road and the historic Payab structure with a design solution. In order to tackle the design solution requested, a qualitative methodology was designed by way of site surveys, site documentation, graphical analysis and interviews. The findings of the research demonstrated contradicting opinions among the governors-laypeople, youngers-elders and males and females about the historic structure. Based on the findings, it was proposed that a protective shield, which aimed to conserve the historic structure under the weight of the new road is required, with a new entrance to be provided through an adjacent sidewalk to achieve consensus among those of diverse ideas. As a conclusion, conservation projects as demonstrated in this paper, like any other conservation projects elsewhere are faced with budget limitation, poor planning and the support it needed. As the historic structure has been part of the local built environment, the integration with other architectural elements in the context is of paramount importance to support the sustainability of the local built environment.
... In [32] used both Druin's levels of involvement and Hart's ladder of participation as inspiration for his Design Participation Ladder. The ladder considers the involvement of children who lives in the undeveloped world specifically. ...
Nowadays many local communities lose their voice in the development of local culture and are in a state of disempowerment, children as inheritors and builders of local culture, need to be nurtured in ways that contribute to the future sustainability of their communities. The participatory game design emphasizes the empowerment of children as creative participants. To explore the process and outcome of using participatory game design to empower children in a cultural decline community, participatory workshops were conducted in a primary school with four phases: culture probing & design capacity building, game story creation, game mechanics design, and design reflection. The purpose of our experiment was not only to lead children to design culturally appropriate games but also to use open-ended questions to guide the interviews and to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the results of children’s culturally relevant psychological empowerment during participation, with empowering outcomes including emotional components (learning motivation, place identity), cognitive components (cultural reflection, cultural innovation), behavioral components (cultural sharing, community engagement) and relational components (collaborative ability, community cohesion).KeywordsCultural EmpowermentParticipatory Game DesignChildren Empowerment
This article makes three contributions to participatory design (PD) research and practice with vulnerable groups: 1) a framework for understanding stakeholder engagement over the course of a PD project; 2) approaches to making user engagement and PD activities more inclusive; and 3) an analysis of how the design and power dynamics of PD projects affect vulnerable groups’ participation. A map of engagement is developed to evaluate stakeholder involvement from initial problem definition to design outcome. The map is applied to three projects aimed at increasing inclusion of vulnerable groups in the planning of public sector services. The first looks at codesign activities to support decision-making in the context of intellectual disabilities; the second looks at culturally diverse youth navigating crisis without adequate assistance from public services; and the third examines nursing students adapting to work in the health sector without accommodations for learning disabilities. Comparing the projects reveals patterns in project planning and execution, and in stakeholder relationships. The article analyses how users are defined, engaged and supported in PD; how proxies shape vulnerable groups’ involvement and PD projects as a whole; and opportunities for greater inclusion when the entire PD project is taken into account.
This research note addresses a significant gap in the literature in researching marginalised customers who may potentially experience vulnerability: the need to use a strengths-based approach in designing social marketing research. There has been a (positive) trend in recent decades towards greater inclusion of stakeholders in social marketing research, design and evaluation through the adoption of co-design methods. However, a theoretical issue that has not been adequately addressed within social marketing research (with some exceptions) is that it is possible to use co-design methods in such a way that the language and approaches that are employed serve to further disempower these groups through a deficit-based discourse. This research note uses reflexivity to propose a set of guidelines for how to implement a strengths-based approach when co-designing with customers experiencing vulnerability, specifically from a social marketing perspective. A real-world program in the context of empowering mature women to maintain secure housing is used to illustrate the guidelines.
Participatory design is a well‐known approach that involves stakeholders in designing technologies and other innovations. In education, participatory design is especially advocated for involving students with special needs. However, less attention has been paid to how participatory design can help in collaborations with teachers. This paper presents a systematic literature review of participatory design studies conducted between 2007 and 2017 that involved teachers. A comprehensive compilation of studies was collected from fourteen search engines and databases. Participatory design studies that involved teachers were analysed, organised and synthesised to produce an overview of the studies. The studies were organised into three thematic categories by research topics: (1) environments, (2) practices, and (3) technologies. Studies focusing on environments included for example teacher involvement in designing physical buildings and technologies that were integrated into the environment. Studies focusing on practices considered professional communities, instructional planning, and professional development programmes. Studies focusing on technologies included for example teacher involvement in designing assessment and monitoring tools, educational games, learning and teaching applications, security and safety technologies, and technology for special needs. This systematic literature review provides a solid starting point for future participatory design research involving teachers.
There is a revitalized interest in power and politics around design and technology in the Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) field. Child–Computer Interaction (CCI) research community has also shown arousing interest towards the topic. However, despite this emerging interest, the CCI research community has remained quite silent about the potential of a critical agenda for CCI. Few studies have explicitly addressed critical research or critical design. This study introduces the notion of a critical agenda for CCI research and identifies CCI studies that are linked with the critical agenda, revealing that there are CCI studies showing emerging interests and seeds for addressing the critical agenda. Overall, this study explores the state-of-the-art critical research tradition in CCI and explicates the potential of this tradition for making the world a better place through design and technology in collaboration with children.
This paper shares key learnings and emerging principles on ways of enabling genuine participation from young people with learning disabilities in co-design. Reviewing previous research focusing on co-design with young people and people with learning disabilities, we highlight key gaps including – a lack of approaches engaging young people with learning disabilities throughout a co-design process; and limited examples of genuine participation focusing on lived experience and engagement in creative and conceptual decision-making. We present our work with young people with learning disabilities to design a game-based learning tool, with a focus on the co-design process. The work illustrates a situated, tailored Participatory Design approach for engaging participants across all stages of co-design. Findings highlight the importance of contextual preparation by embedding in situ to support multi-vocal, multi-method engagement; and asset-based narratives to empower young people and support expression of voice, enabling creativity and conceptual decision-making. Synthesising key learnings and reflections, we present emerging principles underpinned by a rights-based ethos, with an emphasis on creating the right conditions and developing capacities to enable genuine participation.
Participatory design approach emerged with the demand for democracy at the intersection of the political agenda of the Cold War period and the dissemination of the technological infrastructure is a design approach in which users and other stakeholders actively take part in the design process. It is frequently used in design research as much as different fields. In this sense, the evaluation studies on the opportunities, contributions or development of such widely used approach are almost nonexistent in the literature. Existing evaluation studies are also criticized for their narrow scope and lack of clarity. Based on these criticisms, it is aimed to systematically evaluate the participatory design approach in design research with a holistic approach. Accordingly, a three-step methodology was applied. Firstly, a literature research was conducted on how to make a holistic evaluation and the theoretical framework of the evaluation was determined as empowerment. Then, in order to explore the way this phenomenon addressed in design research, 54 projects gathered through document analysis and expert interviews were subjected to qualitative content analysis and two different evaluation frameworks were identified. These frameworks, named as direct empowerment and indirect empowerment, and their subheadings were explained and then compared with each other in terms of similarities and differences, their reasons and implications were discussed. With these evaluation frameworks, systematically put forward in the focus of empowerment which forms the basis of all inter-layer relations, it became possible to evaluate the practices from different perspectives. Also the empowerment processes and results in participatory design used in design researches were revealed. Thus, an intersection was created between empowerment and design research literature which enables different inquiries about participatory design.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of apps that support the transition to parenthood. Research on the experiences of parents of premature children who have returned home from hospital points to the need for ongoing support as they navigate the transition to parenthood without the support of neonatal intensive care staff. For parents of premature infants, these platforms can act as wellsprings of information and also provide emotional and instrumental support during extended periods of hospitalisation. We used the walk-through method to analyse the support content and self-tracking features of five market-leading apps aimed at new parents of premature infants. This content analysis revealed that none of the analysed apps featured ongoing support for parents once they have returned home with their infants. Further analysis of the sociocultural dimensions of the digital content revealed the implicit reinforcement of the gendered expectations of parenthood and heteronormative nuclear families, thereby suggesting that women must enact the majority of caregiving and implicitly excluding users from same-sex or single-parent families. This research illuminates the need for more inclusive and gender-neutral app design and content that can offer ongoing digital support to parents of premature infants who have returned home from hospital.
Participatory design is a widely recognised approach in Design for Development projects. It supports collaborative, community-based practices and it empowers users to take ownership. Despite the importance of participatory design in solving global challenges, the majority of research has focused its application in the Global North. Recently, some studies have explored participatory design methods in more low-resource settings. Still there is a gap between the existence of these methods, and designers being able to use them successfully because of the complex realities they face in low-resource settings. Existing knowledge is fragmented and there is a lack of best practice guidance for practitioners using participatory design in low-resource settings. We address this problem by reporting the experiences of Simprints, a technology company based in the UK, providing biometric identification solutions in the Global South. Our study reveals key recommendations for participatory design in low-resource settings, providing useful insights for practitioners and design researchers.
Although already popular in product and service design, co-design is a more recent entry into the development field. With roots in participatory development and design, co-design is “collective creativity as it is applied across the whole span of a design process” (Sanders and Stappers 2008), where design process can refer to any broad development of service, enterprise, or product. Collective creativity indicates that co-design includes creative approaches or tactics (Lee 2008) to par-ticipation, e.g., collaborative visualization, and not just conventional research methods, e.g.,interview and focus groups.
Teachers play an important role in preparing students for a fast-moving, globalised, and digitalised world. Research to date on teachers and technology has focused on teachers’ skills in using technology and integrating it into learning and teaching. However, the issue is that teachers are often seen as implementors, but are denied the opportunity to influence what i s b eing i m plemented. Thus, teachers may perceive that they are being forced to adopt technology without proper cause. To address this issue, this dissertation examines participatory design as an approach for involving teachers as design partners. Previous participatory design studies in educational contexts have focused on students. To expand such research to include teachers, the present dissertation examines the following: For what purpose have participatory design studies examined teachers? How are teachers’ goals and concerns manifested through participatory design? What issues can be observed when involving teachers in participatory design? The research design comprises three parts: systematic literature mapping of participatory design studies involving teachers; a project involving teachers from a special education school to design a learning space system; and a project piloting a new subject as an elective course in Danish lower secondary education. The systematic mapping produced an overview of the current state of research into participatory design involving teachers. Teachers’ goals and concerns demonstrated how participatory design contributes to the development of a shared pedagogical vision and communication between political decisionmakers and local teachers. The identified i ssues in the two projects were connected to findings from the literature mapping to propose three building blocks of participatory design for involving teachers: identifying roles, needs, rights, and responsibilities, positioning participation as a possibility instead of an obligation, and clarifying an agenda for sustainable outcomes. This dissertation thus serves as a foundation for future efforts in involving teachers in decision-making, for example when introducing digital technologies in education.
This paper describes the process by which a group of seven and eight year old children designed their own digital writing tools following their own study of digital pens, personal digital assistants and tablet PCs. Some of the children's thoughts about the three technologies are presented and how these were carried through into their own designs is explored. It was found that although the children were quite individual in their designs, their peers easily influenced them and their designs were limited by their abilities with the low-tech prototyping environments. The paper concludes with some ideas for further work and provides some guidelines for researchers wanting to carry out design activities with children.
This paper describes WeDD (Web Site Design Day), a project which brought university staff, parent helpers and school children together to design a school web site. The design process, which was modelled on participatory design, is described with reference to other work that has used a similar approach. The methods that were used to evaluate the process are described, and some general conclusions about the efficacy of the approach are presented. Difficulties with trying to work in a participatory way with children are examined. A participatory design model -the IBF model -is proposed; this defines terms for the different balances of participation. This is followed by a discussion of the variables that affect, both before and during the participatory process, the level of participation of the various categories of participant. The project environment and the skills of the participants are identified as being important in the initial positioning of a design project on the IBF model. Subject knowledge and personal security are considered to cause fluctuations within the project. The importance of controlling and monitoring these variables is discussed and further work in this area is described.
This paper draws on a 2-week design workshop conducted at a rural primary school in northern India to provide recommendations on carrying out participatory design with school children in rural, underdeveloped regions. From our experiences in prototyping low-tech and hi-tech English language learning games with rural student participants, we advocate that researchers build a more equal relationship that is qualitatively different from one between teachers and students, enlist local adults and children as facilitators, and explore hi-tech prototyping to inspire the best designs.
This paper presents Bluebells, a design method that balances child-centred design with expert design in a progressive approach that marries the best of both disciplines. The method is described in the context of a museum technologies project. Bluebells comprises several new design techniques; these are evaluated and discussed in the paper. The authors conclude with guidelines for future use of the Bluebells method including the importance of providing a context for design partners and allowing them to express their ideas in ways they are comfortable with.
A nation is democratic to the extent that its citizens are involved, particularly at the community level. The confidence and competence to be involved must be gradually acquired through practice. It is for this reason that there should be gradually increasing opportunities for children to participate in any aspiring democracy, and particularly in those nations already convinced that they are democratic. With the growth of children’s rights we are beginning to see an increasing recognition of children’s abilities to speak for themselves. Regrettably, while children’s and youths’ participation does occur in different degrees around the world, it is often exploitative or frivolous. This Essay is designed to stimulate a dialogue on this important topic. This Essay is written for people who know that young people have something to say but who would like to reflect further on the process. It is also written for those people who have it in their power to assist children in having a voice, but who, unwittingly or not, trivialize their involvement.
Design occurs in a rich social context where the effectiveness and efficiency of social interaction and collective performance are key to successful outcomes. Increasingly, design is being explored and developed as a collective, collaborative, participatory, and even community process. The heightened recognition of designing as a social process has stimulated interest in collaborative design.
This book contains the proceedings of the international conference "CoDesigning 2000" held in Coventry, England, September 2000. During this meeting exponents from a wide range of design domains came together to present and discuss perspectives on and new knowledge and understanding of collaborative design, and the evidence for enhanced design performance through collaboration.
Within this volume different motivations for, conceptions of, and findings about collaborative design are addressed in 50 contributions by different research groups. Structured into 6 sections according to the main fields of interest, it provides a survey of the state of scientifically based knowledge and trends emerging from collaborative design research and their implications for a wide range of domains.
Children constitute a large part of the population of developing countries. Throughout the developing world, experiences of childhood are extremely diverse, both between places and between children in particular places, from the international level through to the different treatment of a boy and a girl within the same household. This informative book considers issues such as education, child labour, street children, child soldiers, refugees, child slaves, the impact of environmental change and hazards on children and the way that children, with the enthusiasm and energy to bring about change, can be enabled to participate in 'development'.
When the first edition of this seminal work appeared in 1990, the sociology of childhood was only just beginning to emerge as a distinct sub-discipline. Drawing together strands of existing sociological writing about childhood and shaping them into a new paradigm, the original edition of this Routledge Classic offered a potent blend of ideas that informed, even inspired, many empirical studies of children's lives because it provided a unique lens through which to think about childhood. Featuring a collection of articles which summarised the developments in the study of childhood across the social sciences, including history, psychology, sociology, anthropology, feminist and developmental studies, scholars and professionals from developed and developing countries world-wide shared their knowledge of having worked and of working with children. Now with a new introduction from the editors to contextualise it into the 21st century, this truly ground-breaking text which helped establish childhood studies as a distinctive field of enquiry is being republished.
Due to changing social conditions active citizenship becomes a dynamic process rather than a standard, clear-cut set of rights and responsibilities. Furthermore, childhood presents itself more and more as an ambivalent social phenomenon. On the one hand, children are seen as autonomous individuals, on the other hand, as objects of protection. Nevertheless, today children can be seen as active citizens. Their ability to learn and play allows them to give active meaning to their environment. Accepting playful and ambivalent forms of citizenship, child participation presents itself no longer as an utopia, but as a fact.
The value of involving people as ‘users’ or ‘participants’ in the design process is increasingly becoming a point of debate. In this paper we describe a new framework, called ‘informant design’, which advocates efficiency of input from different people: maximizing the value of contributions tlom various informants and design team members at different stages of the design process. To illustrate how this can be achieved we describe a project that uses children and teachers as informants at difTerent stages to help us design an interactive learning environment for teaching ecology.
In order to develop theory any community of scientists must agree as to what constitutes its phenomena of interest. A distinction is made between phenomena of interest and exemplars. The concept "prevention" is viewed as an exemplar, whereas the concept "empowerment" is suggested as a leading candidate for the title "phenomena of interest" to Community Psychology. The ecological nature of empowerment theory is described, and some of the terms of empowerment (definitions, conditions, and periods of time) are explicated. Eleven assumptions, presuppositions, and hypotheses are offered as guidelines for theory development and empirical study.
Discussed several issues related to psychological empowerment. The thesis of this paper is that the development of a universal and global measure of psychological empowerment may not be a feasible or appropriate goal. I begin by distinguishing between empowerment processes and outcomes. Underlying assumptions are discussed including the notion that empowerment differs across people, contexts, and times. A nomological network that includes intrapersonal, interactional, and behavioral components is also presented. Two examples of psychological empowerment for voluntary service organization members and members of a mutual help organization are described to help illustrate differences in the specific variables that may be used to measure psychological empowerment in different populations and settings.
Beyond access: informed participation and empowerment. In: Proceedings of the 1999 conference of computer support for collaborative learning Ariè s, P., 1962. Centuries of childhood: a social history of family life
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Contesting childhood United Nations, 1989. Convention on the rights of the child
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How to research the physical and emotional punishment of children
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Ennew, J. and Plateau, D.P., 2004. How to research the physical and emotional punishment of children. Bangkok: Keen Publishing.
Children in focus: a manuel for participatory research with children. Stockholm: Save the Children Children and childhood in Western society since 1500
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Outside childhood: street children's rights The handbook of children's rights: comparative policy and practice
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Designing for or designing with? Informant design for interactive learning environments
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