The document discusses the use of participatory design methods in developing educational games for refugees in the UK, Germany, and Ireland through the RISE project, which aims to enhance employability skills. It outlines challenges faced in organizing participant groups and cultural differences in game perception, proposing solutions like adjusted project timelines and a revised co-operative inquiry process. The study concludes that while visual design documents can aid discussions, achieving desired outcomes requires greater educator involvement, which may restrict end-user participation.

1. The role of participatory design methods in
working with refugees to co-develop games
for learning
Matthew Bates, Nottingham Trent University, UK

2. RISE Project
• RISE aims to remove the gaps in key competencies
• that are creating barriers to employment
• for refugees in the UK, Germany and Ireland
• via the provision of a focussed curriculum
• and accompanying learning materials,
• including interactive desktop and mobile games learning resources,
• which will be engaging and accessible to the target groups

3. Investigation
• Participatory design workshops run in the UK, Ireland and Germany
• Spring 2013
• Attempt to apply previous participatory design methods
• With different target demographic of end user

4. Objectives for Participatory Design

5. Hart’s Ladder

6. A Comparison of Approaches
Workshop Design

7. Issues
Issue 1:
- Participant group difficult to organise
Solution:
-Weekly activities (10) condensed into monthly activities (3)
-Duration of project the same but contact hours reduced

8. Issues
Issue 2:
- Cultural interpretation of ‘games’ as educational products
Solution:
-Project output considered learning applications
-Co-operative enquiry process revised became issues led
-Identify issue, propose solution, map into gameplay narrative

9. Output - Visual designs

10. Conclusions
• difficult top apply participatory design methods with demographic
• visual design documents useful for facilitating discussion
• BUT, design decisions are difficult to interpret
• requiring use of a selection matrix to quantify relevance of designs
• to achieve the desired outcomes of the RISE project
• This requires higher level of participation from educators
• which limits participation of end user to lower levels of Hart’s Ladder

11. Thank you