"Participation" in participatory design research

This thesis is about defining participation in the context of fostering research cohesion in the field of Participatory Design. The systematic and incremental building of new knowledge is the process by which science and research is advanced. This process requires a certain type of cohesion in the way research is undertaken for new knowledge to be built from the knowledge provided by previous projects and research. To support this process and to foster research cohesion three conditions are necessary. These conditions are: common ground between practitioners, problem-space positioning, and adherence to clear research criteria. The challenge of fostering research cohesion in Participatory Design is apparent in at least four themes raised in the literature: the role of politics within Participatory Design epistemology, the role of participation, design with users, and the ability to translate theory into practice. These four thematic challenges frame the context which the research gap is situated. These themes are also further investigated and the research gap – a general lack of research cohesion – along with one avenue for addressing this gap – a clear and operationalizable definition for participation – are identified. The intended contribution of this thesis is to develop a framework and visual tool to address this research gap. In particular, an initial approximation for a clear and operationalizable definition for participation will be proposed such that it can be used within the field of Participatory Design to run projects and foster research cohesion. In pursuit of this contribution, a critical lens is developed and used to analyse some of the principles and practices of Participatory Design that are regarded as foundational. This lens addresses how to define participation in a way that adheres to basic principles of scientific rigour – namely, ensuring that the elements of a theory are operationalizable, falsifiable, generalizable, and useful, and it also treats participation as a construct rather than treating the notion of participation as a variable. A systematic analysis is performed using this lens on the principles and practices that are considered foundational within the field. From this analysis, three components of the participation construct – impact, influence, and agency – are identified. These components are then broken down into two constituent variables each (six in all) and represented visually. Impact is described as the relationship between the quality and use of information. Influence is described as the relationship between the amount and scope of decision making. Agency is described as the relationship between the motivation of the participant and the solidarity of the group. Thus, as a construct, participation is described as the relationship between a participant’s impact, influence, and agency. In the concluding section, the value of this participation construct is explored for its utility in enhancing project work and fostering research cohesion. Three items of potential value that emerge are: the creation of a visual tool through the representation of these six constituent variables in one image; the elaboration of a common language for researchers based on the six constituent variables identified; and the ability to systematically identify and remedy participation gaps throughout the life of the project. While future research exploring the applicability of the participation construct in real world projects is necessary, it is intended that this initial approximation of a participation construct in the form of the visual tool will serve as the basis for a cohesive and rigorous discussion about participation in Participatory Design.

Fotografia e interação no Jardim Botânico: uma abordagem do design de participação em contexto museológico

Em meio à rápida propagação de tecnologias de mídia que tornam possível produzir, arquivar, se apropriar e recircular conteúdo informacional, uma cultura participativa vem emergindo nos dias atuais. Uma lógica de colaboração se faz presente, viabilizada por ferramentas técnicas que estruturam o conhecimento em rede. Nesse contexto, o museu, enquanto agência de representação sociocultural, se esforça no sentido de atualizar-se. Nesta dissertação, sugere-se que a interação participativa de caráter social é um caminho para renovar e ampliar as narrativas culturais elaboradas pelos museus, em sua relação comunicacional com o público. Foi elaborado, então, o sistema Revelar: um modelo preliminar que se propõe a investigar o design de participação em contexto museológico. O sistema, que tem como palco de ações o complexo do Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, pressupõe a participação de estudantes de Ensino Médio em uma atividade programada pela equipe do Museu do Meio Ambiente. A matéria de contribuição dos alunos participantes é a fotografia produzida a partir do uso de dispositivos móveis

Participatory innovation to develop traditional Indonesian craft industries

This paper presents a participatory project involving the traditional glass bead craft industries in rural Java, Indonesia. Their survival is in danger due to tight business competition among themselves and due to shortcomings in existing business mechanisms. The research explores a departure from traditional government assistance programs which seek to train craftspeople with new kinds of technology based skills. Instead, the project explores alternate business mechanisms, ways for traditional craftspeople to get more power in business mechanisms, and ways to develop new design strategies through a collaborative approach. The ultimate goal is to ensure sustainable livelihoods for traditional craft producers and for the traditional craft industry in general. This research also aims to support the economic strength and competitiveness of these industries indirectly by i. Generating knowledge about developing innovation strategies in the traditional craft industry; ii. Providing an alternative advisory program to support the sustainability of the traditional souvenir craft industry; iii. Providing inputs for designers or any institutions who intend to establish collaborative design learning with craft industries. Understanding the situation carefully,including sensitivities such as culture and tensions among people, building self-confidence and trust among craftspeople as well as involving junior designers are keys in pursuing a participatory project in this case.

Arquitetura da participação e controles democráticos no Brasil e no México

A multiplicação de experiências participativas visando ampliar o controle social sobre políticas e políticos tornou-se fenômeno relevante no Brasil e mundo afora. Neste artigo é apresentado um quadro analítico útil à comparação da diversidade da inovação democrática enquanto arquitetura da participação orientada para o controle social. Mediante a aplicação desse quadro, examinamos a configuração de duas arquiteturas contrastantes, originárias de dois contextos nacionais distintos: México e Brasil.

Empowerment games : empathic design probes for user participation in community housing

This paper documents the empowering process of a group of public housing residents through different design probing exercises. These exercises worked along with existing social processes without any involvement of designers. This paper shows how a design researcher devised a series of probing tools called "empowerment games" with a group of active users. These games are self-learning tools for making the abstract language of design legible to users. The main purpose of this intitiative was to change the preconception of govenmental bodies and professional designers of the passivity of the users with regard to their designed environment. This was the first case of the application of a participatory design process in Hong Kong subsidized housing. Design empathy is a central skill when working with users throughout the whole design research project.

Necessary skills and practices required for effective participation in high bandwidth design team activities

Technology is continually changing, and evolving, throughout the entire construction industry; and particularly in the design process. One of the principal manifestations of this is a move away from team working in a shared work space to team working in a virtual space, using increasingly sophisticated electronic media. Due to the significant operating differences when working in shared and virtual spaces adjustments to generic skills utilised by members is a necessity when moving between the two conditions. This paper reports an aspect of a CRC-CI research project based on research of ‘generic skills’ used by individuals and teams when engaging with high bandwidth information and communication technologies (ICT). It aligns with the project’s other two aspects of collaboration in virtual environments: ‘processes’ and ‘models’. The entire project focuses on the early stages of a project (i.e. design) in which models for the project are being developed and revised. The paper summarises the first stage of the research project which reviews literature to identify factors of virtual teaming which may affect team member skills. It concludes that design team participants require ‘appropriate skills’ to function efficiently and effectively, and that the introduction of high band-width technologies reinforces the need for skills mapping and measurement.

Designing participation : Reconsidering agile ridesharing with evolutionary distributed design thinking

This paper explores design thinking from the perspective of designing new forms of interaction to engage people in community change initiatives. A case study of an agile ridesharing system is presented. We describe the fundamental premise of the design approach taken—deploying simple interactive prototypes for use by communities in order to test the design hypothesis, evolve the design in use and grow the community of participants. Real-time use data and feedback from participants influences our understanding of the design approach and feeds into the gradual evolution of the prototype while it continues to be used. We then reflect upon this form of evolutionary distributed design thinking. In contrast to the conventional IT wisdom of building systems to automate ride matching and fare calculation using structured forms, our initial phase of design revealed a preference for informal messaging, negotiation and caution in the sharing of specific location information.

Growing local participation through long term design

Our research explores the design of networked technologies to facilitate local suburban communications and to encourage people to engage with their local community. While there are many investigations of interaction designs for networked technologies, most research utilises small exercises, workshops or other short-term studies to investigate interaction designs. However, we have found these short-term methods to be ineffective in the context of understanding local community interaction. Moreover we find that people are resistant to putting their time into workshops and exercises, understandably so because these are academic practices, not local community practices. Our contribution is to detail a long term embedded design approach in which we interact with the community over the long term in the course of normal community goings-on with an evolving exploratory prototype. This paper discusses the embedded approach to working in the wild for extended field research.

Participation in Urban Interaction Design for Civic Engagement

The future of civic engagement is characterised by both technological innovation as well as new technological user practices that are fuelled by trends towards mobile, personal devices; broadband connectivity; open data; urban interfaces; and cloud computing. These technology trends are progressing at a rapid pace, and have led global technology vendors to package and sell the “Smart City” as a centralised service delivery platform predicted to optimise and enhance cities’ key performance indicators – and generate a profitable market. The top-down deployment of these large and proprietary technology platforms have helped sectors such as energy, transport, and healthcare to increase efficiencies. However, an increasing number of scholars and commentators warn of another “IT bubble” emerging. Along with some city leaders, they argue that the top-down approach does not fit the governance dynamics and values of a liberal democracy when applied across sectors. A thorough understanding is required, of the socio-cultural nuances of how people work, live, play across different environments, and how they employ social media and mobile devices to interact with, engage in, and constitute public realms. Although the term “slacktivism” is sometimes used to denote a watered down version of civic engagement and activism that is reduced to clicking a “Like” button and signing online petitions, we believe that we are far from witnessing another Biedermeier period that saw people focus on the domestic and the non-political. There is plenty of evidence to the contrary, such as post-election violence in Kenya in 2008, the Occupy movements in New York, Hong Kong and elsewhere, the Arab Spring, Stuttgart 21, Fukushima, the Taksim Gezi Park in Istanbul, and the Vinegar Movement in Brazil in 2013. These examples of civic action shape the dynamics of governments, and in turn, call for new processes to be incorporated into governance structures. Participatory research into these new processes across the triad of people, place and technology is a significant and timely investment to foster productive, sustainable, and liveable human habitats. With this article, we want to reframe the current debates in academia and priorities in industry and government to allow citizens and civic actors to take their rightful centrepiece place in civic movements. This calls for new participatory approaches for co-inquiry and co-design. It is an evolving process with an explicit agenda to facilitate change, and we propose participatory action research (PAR) as an indispensable component in the journey to develop new governance infrastructures and practices for civic engagement. We do not limit our definition of civic technologies to tools specifically designed to simply enhance government and governance, such as renewing your car registration online or casting your vote electronically on election day. Rather, we are interested in civic media and technologies that foster citizen engagement in the widest sense, and particularly the participatory design of such civic technologies that strive to involve citizens in political debate and action as well as question conventional approaches to political issues. The rationale for this approach is an alternative to smart cities in a “perpetual tomorrow,” based on many weak and strong signals of civic actions revolving around technology seen today. It seeks to emphasise and direct attention to active citizenry over passive consumerism, human actors over human factors, culture over infrastructure, and prosperity over efficiency. First, we will have a look at some fundamental issues arising from applying simplistic smart city visions to the kind of a problem a city poses. We focus on the touch points between “the city” and its civic body, the citizens. In order to provide for meaningful civic engagement, the city must provide appropriate interfaces.

Girls challenging patriarchy through multimodal design and participation in online communities of practice.

This paper examines adolescent girls' multimodal design that challenges/resists patriarchy. Acts of uploading and multimodal design are discussed in terms of Bulter's theorisation of discursive performativity. The author suggests the girls employ a form of 'linguistic agency' or 'discursive agency' that allows them to make use of a wide range of multimodal design practices often unavailable in print dominated middle years classrooms. The girls in the study were involved in a set of relationships over time, both inside and outside of school in virtual and real time communities of practice. As a result, they engaged with particular areas of curricular knowledge differently than boys. The findings suggest that within online communities of practice, new contexts emerge where adolescent girls can contest the discourses of patriarchal power.

Children and university architecture students working together : a pedagogical model of children’s participation in architectural design

Increasing efforts have been made to engage children in the design of the built environment, and several participatory models have been developed. The aim of this paper is to propose a pedagogical model for children's genuine participation in architectural design, developed in an architectural education context. According to this pedagogical model, children (primary school students) and youth (university architecture students) work in teams to develop the architectural design proposals. This model was developed through a joint educational project between Deakin University and Wales Street Primary School (both institutions are based in Victoria, Australia). In the four-week duration of the project, first year architecture students worked with Grade 3 and 4 primary school children to design a school playground. The final product of the project was a 1:20 scale model of a playground, which was installed and presented at the end of the fourth week. The project received positive feedback from all the participants, including children, architecture students, university lecturers, primary school teachers and architects. In addition, it achieved a high level of children's genuine participation. This model can be refined and applied in new situations, and potentially with other primary schools working with Deakin University.

Promoting participation through the universal design of built environments: making it happen

Environmental design is a determinant of social inclusion and people’s participation in life roles. Design that does not cater for a diverse range of ages, abilities and cultures restricts people’s access to, and use of, domestic or public premises. Universal design is an approach that acknowledges diversity of populations and encourages designers to create objects and places that are usable by the greatest majority of users. Although there are potential benefits to the widest application of universal design within society, such application is not mandatory within Australia. This paper presents findings from an Australian qualitative study that explored universal design as a means of facilitating greater environmental access for all. The views of experts working within the field of architecture and environmental access were explored regarding factors that restrict or facilitate application of universal design to the design of built environments. Study findings revealed a number of themes relating to factors that may restrain, ‘what’s holding us back?’ and factors that may facilitate application of universal design, ‘making it happen’. These findings have direct relevance to those involved in the planning and design of built environments, policy developers and educators.