Participatory Design

``Designing with users for users''

Slides prepared by Linda van Rens

November 24, 1996

(table of contents)

1. Participatory Design Involves

• Mutual learning
  • User learns from designer about technology

  • Designer learns from user about application domain

2. Why Participatory Design?

• Pragmatic
  • 60% to 80% of all problems due to inadequate requirements specifications

• Political
  • people's right to influence their workplace

3. Goals of Participatory Design

• Improvement of information system
  • better system requirements

  • increased user acceptance

• Empowerment of workers

4. Requirements

• Employees
  • access to relevant information

  • possibility for taking independent position on problems

  • possibility to participate in process of decision making

• Appropriate participatory design methods

• Organizational / technical flexibility

5. `Rules' in Participatory Design

• Designer should not overrule users

• Designer should not uncritically do what users want

6. Possible Problems with Participatory Design

• Differences between users and designers
  • designers have deadline, users have own work

  • users may think they do not know enough

• Participation does not necessarily further acceptance

• Participation stops after design project is stopped

7. PICTIVE

P	lastic
I	nterface for
C	ollaborative
T	echnology
I	nitiatives through
V	ideo
E	xploration

8. PICTIVE

• Low-technology environment for design activity

• Prototyping has disadvantage
  • less direct participation for users than for software professionals

• Normal mock-up has disadvantage
  • users react instead of initiate

• In PICTIVE, the user initiates

9. PICTIVE

• Object Model
  • use common office objects
• Process Model
  • all participants use same objects

• Participation model
  • people with diverse expertise

  • people who are influenced by design

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