Participatory design is an approach to design that invites stakeholders like end users, employees, and customers to participate in the design process. This allows designers to better understand needs. It is not a single method, but a philosophy of involving people in the design of things that affect them. The document outlines methods like collages and creating magic objects that generate ideas from participants in a workshop setting. Insights from activities are analyzed for themes and next steps. Participatory design fits within the design process after discovery to generate ideas before solutions are focused on and evaluated.

1. Jennifer Briselli
Managing Director, Experience Design
@jbriselli
jbriselli@madpow.com
Participatory Design
Discovering Unmet Needs & New Solutions

2. What is Participatory Design?
Why might you use these this approach in your own practice?
What are some methods and activities, and how do you choose them?
What does it look like? How do you do it?
What do you do with the results of a workshop?
Overview

3. What is Participatory Design?

4. What it is:
An approach to design that invites all stakeholders (e.g. ‘end users,’ employees,
partners, customers, citizens, consumers, patients, providers) into the design process as
a means of better understanding, meeting, and sometimes preempting their needs.
What it is not:
• 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?

5. Involving the people we’re
serving through design as
participants in the process.
What is Participatory Design?

9. Design Process
DISCOVER
Adapted from “Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design” from UK Design Council

10. DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE
Design Process
Adapted from “Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design” from UK Design Council

11. DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE
Design Process
Adapted from “Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design” from UK Design Council

12. DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE FOCUS
Design Process
Adapted from “Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design” from UK Design Council

13. DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE FOCUS
EVALUATE
Design Process
Adapted from “Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design” from UK Design Council

14. 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?

15. “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
In other words:
It leads to better experiences & outcomes.
Why it’s useful

16. Generative methods uncover latent needs.
Image: Liz Sanders

17. 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

18. 1. Choose table group & topic
2. Discuss your personal experiences within this topic
3. As a group, identify a specific problem space, challenge, or
subtopic that everyone in the group feels some familiarity with
4. Write the problem statement you’ll focus on today
“How might we improve...”
“How might we support...”
“How might we reduce...”
Group Breakout & Topic Selection

19. Topics
• Navigating a confusing
health insurance situation
• Living with a chronic
condition
• Challenges of being a
caregiver
• End of life care
• Supporting people with
addiction
• Providing care to
underserved populations
• Pregnancy support
• Choose your own…

20. Framing

21. Stakeholders, Co-creators, End Users
Challenges & Goals
Questions & Unknowns
Assumptions & Hypotheses
Choosing Activities
Framing

22. Three categories of activity
Narrate: Participants help us understand their needs via storytelling
Create: Participants generate ideas and create prototypes of products, services,
or experiences (these can be very realistic or completely unrealistic)
• Sometimes participants create viable solution concepts
• Sometimes participants create items that give designers insight & direction
Prioritize: Participants make connections and judgments that help us understand
the value of potential design solutions
Choosing activities & methods

23. Telling stories helps participants express more detailed and emotionally resonant
experiences. These activities are intended to elicit memories and help build
empathy and understanding.
Examples:
• Journey mapping
• Love letter/breakup letter
• Collaging
• Empathy mapping
• Knowledge hunt
• Reenactments
‘Narrate’ activities

26. Participants can provide a lot of insight when provided tools and opportunities to
design without constraints or expectations.
Examples:
• Magic screen/button/object
• Interface toolkit
• Physical/paper/rapid prototyping
• Fill in the blank
• Ideal workflow
• Ecosystem mapping
‘Create’ activities

31. These activities help participants and designers evaluate and understand the
value of existing experiences or potential future design solutions.
Examples:
• Card sorting
• Channel sorting
• Value ranking
• Storyboard/Concept speed dating
• Bodystorming/Gamestorming
‘Prioritize’ activities

34. The design prompt sets the stage and ensures participants will focus their
contributions on the goals, questions, or hypotheses you’ve 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

35. 1. Identify a design goal for your topic problem statement
Framing: Let’s Try It

36. 1. Identify a design goal for your topic problem statement
2. Create a design prompt for participants
We’ll try two activities today:
• Collage
• Magic Object
Framing: Let’s Try It

37. Collage
This activity helps members’ express their experiences and needs in a way words can
sometimes fail to describe. Participants will also put themselves at the center of the
map, which allows us to understand how members’ conceive of their own agency (or
lack thereof).
How:
Participants are provided a prompt and asked to spend 30-45 minutes creating a
collage that describes their feelings about the prompt. Participants are then asked to
share and discuss their collage. Facilitators may ask participants to elaborate to
better elucidate examples and opportunities.
Materials:
paper, images, glue sticks or tape, writing utensils, post-its

38. Magic Object
Providing members with materials that allow them to engage in a making process
can provide insights about potential design solutions as well as uncover latent
needs.
How:
Participants are provided building materials and a prompt, and asked to spend
30-45 minutes creating the objects.
Participants are then asked to share and briefly discuss their creations.
Facilitators may ask members to elaborate on aspects of their explanation where
appropriate to elucidate examples and opportunities.
Materials:
Paper, construction materials, glue sticks or tape

39. 1. Identify a design goal for your topic problem statement
2. Create a design prompts for participants
Activity 1: Collage
Ex: “What does the health care landscape look like to you right now?”
Ex: “What does your experience as a health provider feel like to you?”
Activity 2: Magic Object
Ex: “Use the items provided to create any kind of tool, service, or magic item that
would make the hospital stay experience better for you.”
Ex: “Use the items provided to create a magic device that would make your daily
nursing responsibilities easier to manage.”
Framing: Let’s Try It

40. Planning

41. 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

44. Facilitating

45. Be prepared
Be yourself
Be flexible & adaptive
Be reflective
Be warm & friendly
Facilitating: Participation

46. Document Document Document
• Dedicated note taker(s)
• Photograph
• Record audio & visual when possible
• Keep artifacts when possible
Ask participants to tell you about what they create
• Show & tell
• Share a story
• Write a commercial
• Create a pitch
What they create is often less important than how they describe its value.
Facilitating: Capturing Value

47. Facilitating: Let’s Try It
Activity 1: Collage
Participants
Follow your group’s design prompt
to create a collage based on your
own personal experiences.
Facilitators
Observe your group’s participants.
Take notes and ask questions. Near
the end of the activity, you will ask
each participant to explain their
creation.

48. LUNCH

49. Facilitating: Let’s Discuss
Activity 1: Collage
Participants
What did you think about the
experience?
Facilitators
What kinds of things did you see,
hear, and think during the activity?

50. Facilitating: Let’s Try It
Activity 2: Magic Object
Participants
Follow your group’s design prompt
to create an object based on your
own personal experiences.
Facilitators
Observe your group’s participants.
Take notes and ask questions. Near
the end of the activity, you will ask
each participant to explain their
creation.

51. Facilitating: Let’s Discuss
Activity 2: Magic Object
Participants
What did you think about the
experience?
Facilitators
What kinds of things did you see,
hear, and think during the activity?

52. Analyzing

53. Cull: Cut irrelevant or incomplete information
Normalize: get everything into a common format
• excel
• text documents
• grids
• post-its
Review: Follow your instinct… analysis is as much art as science
Expect to spend at least 2 hours of analysis for every hour facilitating.
Analyzing

54. Raw Data
• Notes
• Photos
• Videos
• Audio
• Artifacts
Normalized
Data
• Spreadsheets
• Post-its
• Transcripts
Participant
Clusters
Opportunity
Clusters
Theme/Affinity
Clusters
Identified
Patterns
Potential Output
• Focus Areas
• Design Characteristics
• Design Principles
• Solution Concepts
• Prototype Ideas

55. Participant 1
Notes & Photos
Participant 2
Participant 3
Opportunity 1 Opportunity 2
Pattern 1 Pattern 2
Opportunity 3

60. Analyzing: Let’s Try It
As a group, share your notes from each activity.
Organize your post-its and other documentation and work together
to identify 3-5 key themes or patterns that emerge from your analysis
with the topic your activities explored.
Each group will identify and share 3-5 insights, patterns, or ideas, and
produce a “next steps” statement.

61. Analyzing: Let’s Discuss
• How did it go?
• What did you learn?
• What would come next?
• What would you do differently?

62. What are the most important takeaways for your organization?
What are the most important questions we left unanswered?
What are the aspects you are most and least confident about
implementing in your own practice?
Wrap Up

63. Jennifer Briselli
Managing Director, Experience Design
@jbriselli
jbriselli@madpow.com
Thanks!