Reflections+on+Participatory+Design

The Participatory Design approach ultimately worked very effectively within the ICCIT website redesign project. We had an eager and creative set of users who were able to provide innovative and functional solutions to many of the design problems that were identified through the five phases of design. Overall we thought that the users felt engaged in the design process and that their ideas were being incorporated as the process progressed.

Through a PD approach we were able to help the participants to rethink their original ideas and view the design form different perspectives. For instance, at the initial interview the participants presented a lot of critiques and offered suggestions such as Web 2.0 technologies. However, they were not able to address the usefulness of their ideas to the re-design of the website. The workshop and prototyping sessions allowed to them to understand their needs based on a context.

The final prototype design was the result of much contribution for all the users who participated throughout the semester which is reflected in their satisfaction of “final” prototype design. The participatory approach was successful in this context but as new adaptors of Participatory Design we encountered some challenges during the design process. Although, the experience of these challenges did not directly reflect the output of the project, they were rewarding aspects to reflect on and manage differently in other design projects in the future.

One of the major questions raised continually throughout this project was the decision of when to start prototyping. In our original work plan we decided to perform many design activities before the construction of a prototype. We felt that we needed as much information as possible from our users to draw upon during prototype creation to avoid incorporating too many of our own personal ideas. We wanted the prototypes to be a reflection of the users’ design contributions. However, after multiple visits to the ICCIT department with unstructured and abstract design activities some users began asking for a more concrete design. It was apparent that they were excited to see what we as the “designers” could come up with. This was an obvious conflict since we wanted the ideas to come solely from the users, and the users wanted to see the ideas that we would bring to their design problem. It was difficult to present our opinions and ideas while maintaining a participatory approach.

A challenge related to this was the difficulty of maintaining user excitement over time. In general, this design project was fairly short ranging less than four months. However, even during that time our user participation began to decrease with each visit to the ICCIT department. This problem was related to the timing of prototype introduction since the prototype seemed to be the most exciting aspect of design. Users’ specific ideas were most apparent once they had a tangible design to critique and suggest improvements for. Perhaps, an early introduction of wireframe prototypes may have maintained users’ interests for a longer period of time. Alternatively, further information about the activities being conducted at the beginning of the project could have better indicated the level of involvement required by the users involved. It may also have allowed them to better perceive the overall design process, and how the results of every design phase (whether it involves the use of a prototype or not) were incorporated into the final design.

Another challenge we faced during this project was the management of user expectations. It was sometimes difficult for users to envision the involvement of a designer within a technical project. At many times it became evident that a more functioning, web-based prototype was expected. We attempted to remain clear and realistic about project results, but ultimately users were more excited about a final product which more accurately represents their idea of the final functioning system.