participatory design: discovering unmet needs & new solutions
TRANSCRIPT
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Jennifer Briselli Managing Director, Experience Strategy & Design
Participatory DesignDiscovering Unmet Needs & New Solutions
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What is Participatory Design?
Why might you use these this approach in your own practice or organization?
How has it been successful for others?
What does it look like? How do you do it?
Overview
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If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.
Henry Ford
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If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.
????
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If asking people what they want, doesnt work, what are we supposed to do?
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What is Participatory Design?
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What it is:
An approach to design that invites all stakeholders (e.g. end users, employees, partners, customers, citizens, consumers) into the design process as a means of better understanding, meeting, and sometimes preempting their needs.
What it is not:
A variation on interviews or focus groups A way to make your users do your job for you A single prescriptive method or tool A rigidly defined process
(see also: co-design, co-creation, co-production, collaborative design) A holy grail
What is Participatory Design?
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Involving the people were serving through design as participants in the process.
What is Participatory Design?
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Credit:LizSanders
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Credit:LizSanders
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Design Process
DISCOVER
Adapted from Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design from UK Design Council
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DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE
Design Process
Adapted from Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design from UK Design Council
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DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE
Design Process
Adapted from Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design from UK Design Council
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DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE FOCUS
Design Process
Adapted from Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design from UK Design Council
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DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE FOCUS
EVALUATE
Design Process
Adapted from Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design from UK Design Council
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DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE FOCUS
Adapted from Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design from UK Design Council
Generates design principles & direction
Generates viable solution concepts
Where does participatory design fit in?
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Participatory design methods, especially generative or making activities, provide a design language for non designers (future users) to imagine and express their own ideas for how they want to live, work, and play in the future.
- Liz Sanders
Why its useful
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Generative methods uncover latent needs.
Image: Liz Sanders
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For example
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For example
Users often talk about wanting to have an easy to navigate site and answers at their fingertips, but when they created imaginary screens, they focused less on easy navigation and more on making sure the interface would know the person viewing it and remind them of key information, pre-empting questions and the need to navigate much at all.
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Framing: Identifying goals, objectives, key questions, hypotheses
Planning: Planning activities that answer these questions
Facilitating: Ensuring & documenting productive participation
Analyzing: Making sense of it all to identify actionable insights
How to do it
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Framing
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Stakeholders, Co-creators, End Users
Challenges & Goals
Questions & Unknowns
Assumptions & Hypotheses
Choosing Activities
Framing
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Many types, many goals
Trust Building
Collaboration
Narrative
Generative
Reflective
Choosing activities & methods
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Participants help us understand their needs via storytelling. These activities are intended to elicit memories and help build empathy and understanding, building trust and identifying opportunities along the way.
Examples: Journey mapping Love letter/breakup letter Collaging Empathy mapping Knowledge hunt Reenactments
Narrative activities
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Participants generate ideas and create prototypes of products, services, or experiences Sometimes participants create viable solution concepts Sometimes participants create items that give designers insight & direction
Examples: Magic screen/button/object Interface toolkit Physical/paper/rapid prototyping Fill in the blank Ideal workflow Ecosystem mapping
Generative activities
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Participants make connections and judgments that help us understand the value of potential design solutions. These activities help participants and designers evaluate and understand the value of existing experiences or potential future design solutions.
Examples: Card sorting Value ranking Storyboard/Concept speed dating Bodystorming/Gamestorming
Reflective activities
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The design prompt sets the stage and ensures participants will focus their contributions on the goals, questions, or hypotheses youve identified.
For example:
Use the items provided to create a perfect remote control.
Draw an imaginary classroom that provides all your educational needs.
Create a script for the ideal interaction between a student and counselor.
Design Prompts
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Planning
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Where: office, school, home, outdoors, in context
Who & how many: large group, small group, individual
Observation methods: notes, video, photo, artifacts
Materials: construction kits, legos, playdoh
Logistics: recruiting (>2 weeks), honorarium, volunteers, observers
Planning
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Facilitating
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Be prepared
Be yourself
Be flexible & adaptive
Be reflective
Be warm & friendly
Facilitating: Participation
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Document Document Document Dedicated note taker(s) Photograph Record audio & visual when possible (consent is key) Keep artifacts when possible
Ask participants to tell you about what they create 1 on 1 Show & tell Share a story Write a commercial Create a pitch
Facilitating: Capturing Value
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What they create is often less important than how they describe its value.
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Analyzing
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Cut irrelevant or incomplete information
Get everything into a common format
Follow your instinct analysis is as much art as science
Expect to spend at least 2 hours of analysis for every hour spent facilitating.
Analyzing
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Raw Data Notes Photos Videos Audio Artifacts
StandardizedData Spreadsheets Post-its
Participant Clusters
Opportunity Clusters
Theme/Affinity Clusters
Identified Patterns
Potential Output Focus Areas Design Characteristics Design Principles Solution Concepts Prototype Ideas
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If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.
????
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Instead of asking people to tell us what they want, why not give them the language and tools to show us what they want... Or even to create it themselves.
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Thinking about
What are the most important takeaways for your organization?
What are the most important questions left unanswered?
Wrap Up Q & A
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Jennifer Briselli Managing Director, Experience Strategy & Design
Thanks!