Participatory Design Process Research Articles

Virtual environments as medium for laypeople to communicate and collaborate in urban design

Regarding laypeople’s active participation with artefacts in the early stage of urban design, there is a certain difference between conventional urban design process and participatory urban design process. The design artefacts used in the conventional urban design process do not allow laypeople to take part actively in the early stages of the design process. Similarly, in the participatory design process, the generated design ideas remain hidden in assumption due to the lack of associated information of the artefacts and the participants perform as individual actors. The research speculates that a virtual immersive participatory design instrument can reduce the gap, where the participants can act together as a unit to produce authentic design outcomes. An Immersive Virtual Environment (IVE) assisted design experiment set-up has developed for laypeople to engage in a shared and enhanced communicative platform. The article reports the procedure of developing the instrument and discusses them in terms of design communication, participation and expert’s role. It concludes with a reflection of how laypeople as co-designers can use IVE instruments to design their neighbourhood meaningfully.

Participatory design for ontologies: a case study of an open science ontology for qualitative coding schemas

PurposeThe open science movement calls for transparent and retraceable research processes. While infrastructures to support these practices in qualitative research are lacking, the design needs to consider different approaches and workflows. The paper bases on the definition of ontologies as shared conceptualizations of knowledge (Borst, 1999). The authors argue that participatory design is a good way to create these shared conceptualizations by giving domain experts and future users a voice in the design process via interviews, workshops and observations.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents a novel approach for creating ontologies in the field of open science using participatory design. As a case study the creation of an ontology for qualitative coding schemas is presented. Coding schemas are an important result of qualitative research, and reuse can yield great potential for open science making qualitative research more transparent, enhance sharing of coding schemas and teaching of qualitative methods. The participatory design process consisted of three parts: a requirement analysis using interviews and an observation, a design phase accompanied by interviews and an evaluation phase based on user tests as well as interviews.FindingsThe research showed several positive outcomes due to participatory design: higher commitment of users, mutual learning, high quality feedback and better quality of the ontology. However, there are two obstacles in this approach: First, contradictive answers by the interviewees, which needs to be balanced; second, this approach takes more time due to interview planning and analysis.Practical implicationsThe implication of the paper is in the long run to decentralize the design of open science infrastructures and to involve parties affected on several levels.Originality/valueIn ontology design, several methods exist by using user-centered design or participatory design doing workshops. In this paper, the authors outline the potentials for participatory design using mainly interviews in creating an ontology for open science. The authors focus on close contact to researchers in order to build the ontology upon the expert's knowledge.

Syncphonia: Understanding the value of participatory design in developing music technology to support musical ensembles that use notation

The benefits of ensemble performance are well recognized; notation supports group performance, but cuts in music education and changing musical cultures mean that notation is increasingly perceived as a barrier to entry. In an extended participatory design (PD) project, we co-designed and developed a software system for networked notation called Syncphonia with the aim of enhancing access to and experience of notation-based ensemble performance. In previous work, our formal evaluation and informal observations and feedback revealed a wide range of benefits. In this article, we are concerned with articulating the knowledge generated and insights gained through this extended PD process. To do so, we employ a framework for systematic reflection that has been designed to support investigation into the tacit knowledge generated in participatory design. Through this method, we focus inward and share three insights into the value of networked notation in contemporary musical cultures; we also look outward and articulate five approaches to PD with musical ensembles that might benefit others adopting this rich research method. A pluralistic and inclusive vision of notation is espoused and speculation is submitted that a dynamic, networked notation might ameliorate the boundaries between composing, improvising and performing to the benefit of all three.

Planetary health justice: feminist approaches to building in rural Kenya

The planetary health concept describes the relations between health and climate. The inequities that connect these two domains are experienced most by low-resource and vulnerable populations, e.g. the impact of drought on subsistence livelihoods and associated mental health issues. Climate justice and health justice are framed through capabilities and integrated with ecofeminist approaches. Spatial justice is introduced as the ability to conceptualise how these interconnected injustices are mediated through environments. The integration of these theories can provide a justice-based planetary health approach that could overcome several barriers. Design and spatial practice offer processes and tools to understand the complexity of planetary health across scales, systems and relations; and to generate design solutions that promote equity and justice. Practical examples of Global South design projects are presented that connect health and climate. The example of a maternal health project in rural Kenya shows how a conceptual design framework for a justice-based planetary health can contribute to the planetary health. Practice relevance Global challenges of inequity are increasingly understood as complex and interconnected. The planetary health movement conceptualises a holistic view of the world incorporating an ecofeminist perspective. Addressing these challenges requires the ability to conceptualise interconnected injustices in climate and health and practical approaches, where participatory design processes can be useful. A conceptual framework can be used to design integrated solutions to planetary health injustices, relevant for built environment and development practitioners. The processes, tools and components of practice from the Global South are explored, which can be used to promote equity within the built environment.

Towards a Revised Framework for Participatory Planning in the Context of Risk

Community participation is widely acknowledged to be crucial in both mitigation and reconstruction planning, as well as in community-based disaster risk reduction (CBDRR) and community-based disaster mitigation (CBDM) processes. However, despite decades of experience, an efficient framework that is acceptable for all actors and suitable for all different phases of the process—ranging from planning to post-disaster recovery—is lacking. The examples presented in this paper shed light on the different dynamics of participatory design processes and compare situations in which participatory design and community planning were introduced before, during, or after a disastrous or potentially disastrous event. Others emphasize the consequences of participation not being introduced at all. Analysis of these processes allows the authors to speculate on a revised, universal model for participatory planning in vulnerable territories and in the context of risk. By emphasizing intrinsic relations of different elements of the process, particularly the responsibility that different actors are prepared—or forced—to take, this article offers insight towards a framework for post-2020 participatory planning.

Enhancing flood risk maps by a participatory and collaborative design process

The European Floods Directive (2007/60/EC) requires Member States to make flood hazard and risk maps available to the public. Yet, making flood risk maps available is not enough to inform the public about risk, they need to be understood correctly. Which are the elements that make risk maps suitable and clear for non-expert citizens? Which is the information expected by local technicians in flood risk maps? In order to answer to these questions, co-mapping labs were organized within the project “Flood-IMPAT+: an integrated meso- & micro-scale procedure to assess territorial flood risk” in the city of Lodi, Northern Italy. The co-mapping labs involved representatives of the civil society, economic activities and local institutions responsible for flood risk management. They were asked to examine flood maps developed within the project with respect to their components of hazard, exposure, vulnerability and damage in order to collect guidelines for increasing communicative effectiveness of the maps. Contributes from participants were fundamental to understand the type of information and language that make flood risk successfully represented for and understood by different end-users. Currently, the same maps provided in flood risk management plans are consulted by those who are involved in planning processes, emergency overcoming, risk mitigation or simply exposed to risk. On the contrary, co-mapping labs highlighted the need to produce maps calibrated on stakeholders’ needs, i.e. which supply different information according to the map final use. In this regard, the effectiveness of the tool map itself was questioned and the request for a mix of tools combining hard copies of the maps and Information Systems allowing the combination and the query of interchangeable layers of information arose. In addition, the labs underlined the need to enhance the governance between the actors responsible for flood risk management as well as the need of the public and the civil society of being involved in the flood mapping process and supported in their understanding. In conclusion, the co-mapping labs had the added value to be an experience of collaborative inquiry and participatory design in flood risk communication, supplying suggestions and recommendations that should be incorporated in the design of novel flood hazard and risk maps.

Person-centred care by a combined digital platform and structured telephone support for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and/or chronic heart failure: study protocol for the PROTECT randomised controlled trial

BackgroundA core feature of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) and chronic heart failure (CHF) is that symptoms may change rapidly because of illness progression. Thus, these chronic conditions are associated...

VisualNeuro: A Hypothesis Formation and Reasoning Application for Multi‐Variate Brain Cohort Study Data

AbstractWe present an application, and its development process, for interactive visual analysis of brain imaging data and clinical measurements. The application targets neuroscientists interested in understanding the correlations between active brain regions and physiological or psychological factors. The application has been developed in a participatory design process and has subsequently been released as the free software ‘VisualNeuro’. From initial observations of the neuroscientists' workflow, we concluded that while existing tools provide powerful analysis options, they lack effective interactive exploration requiring the use of many tools side by side. Consequently, our application has been designed to simplify the workflow combining statistical analysis with interactive visual exploration. The resulting environment comprises parallel coordinates for effective overview and selection, Welch's t‐test to filter out brain regions with statistically significant differences and multiple visualizations for comparison between brain regions and clinical parameters. These exploration concepts enable neuroscientists to interactively explore the complex bidirectional interplay between clinical and brain measurements and easily compare different patient groups. A qualitative user study has been performed with three neuroscientists from different domains. The study shows that the developed environment supports simultaneous analysis of more parameters, provides rapid pathways to insights and is an effective tool for hypothesis formation.

도시브랜드 구축을 위한 참여디자인 프로세스 적용

미디어의 변화에 따라 더 능동적으로 성장한 사용자(시민) 참여를 도시브랜드 개발에 효율적으로 이끌어내기 위한 참여 디자인 적용이 중요하게 되었다. 본 연구에서는 도시브랜드 개발 과정에서의 시민의 참여적 요소와 도시브랜드의 지속적인 관리를 위한 구축 단계에서의 참여디자인 프로세스를 분석하였다. 참여디자인 적용으로 도시브랜드 디자인 과정뿐만 아니라 개발 이후의 문제점 발생을 최소화하고 지속가능성을 목표로 하였다. 본 연구의 방법 및 범위는 도시브랜드, 도시브랜드 디자인 프로세스, 참여디자인 방법론에 대한 리서치와 최근에 개발된 국내외 10개 도시브랜드 사례조사를 진행하였다. 도시 사례분석은 구체적인 개발 프로세스 분석에 집중, 이를 통한 핵심 포인트 도출에 목적을 두었다. 특히 앞서 언급한 참여디자인 관점에서 사용자 참여유무, 참여방법, 프로세스 등을 포함하여 조사하였다. 사례분석을 통해 각 도시마다 소극적/적극적 기법으로 시민참여 방법을 적용한 것을 볼 수 있었다. 참여정도에 따라 브랜드의 지속성이 절대적으로 유지된다고 단정하기 어렵지만 시민들의 브랜드에 대한 긍정적 태도를 이끌어낼 수 있게 한다. 최근까지 활발하게 브랜딩이 활성화되고 있는 도시 사례를 보면 그 이유가 더 뚜렷하게 참여디자인에 있음이 파악되었다. 도시들은 지속적으로 여러 형태의 참여 프로그램을 개발하여 도시 자체를 활성화하는데 집중하고 있다. 따라서 성공적인 도시브랜드를 위해서는 개발과정과 개발 후의 브랜드커뮤니케이션 즉 사용자 참여방식에 더 중점을 두어야 한다.

Learning from the Resilience Playtest: increasing engagement in resilience promoting games through participatory design

ABSTRACT This article considers the co-design, co-production and evaluation of resilience-focused educational games developed by and for young people with complex needs. For the purposes of this article, we have defined complex needs as experiencing learning or health-related difficulties such as sensory, learning and mobility impairments or mental health issues, alongside other challenges such as living in poverty. Using the development of these games and the results of the evaluation as a case study, it addresses key debates surrounding participatory design within the context of social inequalities. It suggests that participatory design, when seen as a methodology, may provide an action-based strategy to improve communication between people that face adversity, and those who support them. Findings from the evaluation of the process and the games suggest that involving young people with complex needs in the design of educational games may improve the social value associated with the end-product. Findings from this case study may be relevant to people interested in participatory design processes, those that incorporate educational or therapeutic games into their practice, and researchers seeking to work with groups where verbal communication has traditionally been seen as a barrier, or is an actual barrier.

Development and Feasibility Testing of a Video Game to Reduce High-Risk Heterosexual Behavior in Spanish-Speaking Latinx Adolescents: Mixed Methods Study.

BackgroundSimilar to broader health disparities, Latinx adolescents have higher rates of high-risk sexual behavior resulting in pregnancy rates that are 2 times higher and sexually transmitted infection rates that are 5 to 8 times higher than non-Hispanic, white adolescents. Novel approaches are needed to reduce high-risk sexual behavior among Spanish-speaking Latinx adolescents who represent the fastest-growing group of US immigrants.ObjectiveThis study aimed to partner with Spanish-speaking Latinx adolescents in a participatory design process to develop and test a Spanish-language video game intervention to decrease high-risk heterosexual behavior.MethodsThis is an iterative, two-phase, mixed methods study. In phase 1, we conducted focus groups with Spanish-speaking Latinx adolescents to elicit feedback on the content and format of an existing English-language video game. Feedback was then incorporated into an expanded and culturally adapted Spanish-language video game. In phase 2, we pilot tested the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the new Spanish-language video game intervention by measuring known antecedents to sexual behavior (intentions, self-efficacy, risk perception, and knowledge) assessed at enrollment and 12-week follow-up. We applied a thematic analysis to examine focus group feedback and a bivariate analysis to analyze pre- and postquantitative data.ResultsIn phase 1, 15 Spanish-speaking Latinx adolescents provided feedback for further video game development. A Spanish-language video game was then produced and tested in phase 2. We recruited and enrolled 24 Spanish-speaking Latinx adolescents aged 15 to 17 years. Participants played the video game for an average of 4.2 hours during monitored sessions. Pilot testing demonstrated feasibility and acceptability; 65% (3/20) of participants stated that they would play it again, and 65% (3/20) said they would recommend it to friends. Condom-specific knowledge did significantly increase between baseline and follow-up (P=.007). Other variables of sexual behavior antecedents did not differ significantly between baseline and 12-week follow-up.ConclusionsAn iterative participatory design process in partnership with Spanish-speaking adolescents produced an innovative and acceptable Spanish-language video game intervention aimed at decreasing high-risk sexual behavior in adolescents. Pilot testing demonstrated preliminary feasibility and yielded essential information for further video game development.

TimeSets: Temporal Sensemaking in Intelligence Analysis.

TimeSets is a temporal data visualization technique designed to reveal insights into event sets, such as all the events linked to one person or organization. In this article, we describe two TimeSets-based visual analytics tools for intelligence analysis. In the first case, TimeSets is integrated with other visual analytics tools to support open-source intelligence analysis with Twitter data, particularly the challenge of finding the right questions to ask. The second case uses TimeSets in a participatory design process with analysts that aims to meet their requirements of uncertainty analysis involving fake news. Lessons learned are potentially beneficial to other application domains.

Generative Participatory Design Methodology to Develop Electronic Health Interventions: Systematic Literature Review.

BackgroundGenerative participatory design (PD) may help in developing electronic health (eHealth) interventions. PD is characterized by the involvement of all stakeholders in creative activities. This is different from the traditional user-centered design, where users are less involved. When looking at PD from a research through design perspective, it is important to summarize the reasons for choosing a certain form of generative PD to further develop its methodology. However, the scientific literature is currently unclear about which forms of PD are used to develop eHealth and which arguments are used to substantiate the decision to use a certain form of generative PD.ObjectiveThis study aimed to explore the reporting and substantiation of generative PD methodologies in empirical eHealth studies published in scientific journals to further develop PD methodology in the field of eHealth.MethodsA systematic literature review following the Cochrane guidelines was conducted in several databases (EMBASE, MEDLINE Ovid, Web of Science, and CINAHL EBSCOhost). Data were extracted on the recruitment and management of stakeholders, the use of tools, and the use of outcome measures.ResultsOf the 3131 studies initially identified, 69 were selected for qualitative synthesis. The reporting was very variable, depending to a large extent on whether the study stated that reporting on the PD process was a major aim. The different levels of reporting and substantiation of the choices of a recruitment strategy, stakeholder management, and tools and outcome measures are presented. Only a few authors explicitly used arguments directly related to PD guiding principles such as democratic, mutual learning, tacit and latent knowledge, and collective creativity. Even though PD principles were not always explicitly discussed in the method descriptions of the studies, they were implicitly present, mostly in the descriptions of the use of PD tools. The arguments used to substantiate the choices made in stakeholder management, PD tools, and the type of outcome measures adopted point to the involvement of PD principles.ConclusionsStudies that have used a PD research methodology to develop eHealth primarily substantiate the choice of tools made and much less the use of stakeholders and outcome measures.

Prototype for a Mobile Peritoneal Dialysis Unit, Case Study of Lamsonthi Model, Lopburi Province

Chronic kidney disease has been a major health problem in Thailand as confirmed by the growing number of patients every year in every region. Reports pointed out that poverty and difficult access to public hospitals are among factors that prevent underprivileged kidney disease patients in rural areas from receiving proper medical treatments. Frequent visits, at least twice-a-week, to the nearest haemodialysis center are not always affordable, while many dwellings do not meet hygienic standard for home treatments. A mobile peritoneal dialysis unit invention was then initiated by Lamsonthi Hospital, Lopburi, as a part of alternative services known as “Lamsonthi Model” in attempt to fill in service gaps and transform healthcare provisions to fit specific conditions in rural villages. Researched and designed by the Built Environment for Health research unit of Kasetsart University, the prototype was developed through participatory design process between designers, patients and multidisciplinary staffs from Lamsonthi Hospital to create an integrative design outcome responsive to sensitive conditions. With emphasis on affordability and movability, the final design proposed a budget foldable prototype that can be transported in a truck and installed at any location, and later movable to another place to service another patient in need. The unit accommodates wheelchair access and is equipped with sanitary and lighting systems. The post-occupancy assessment of the prototype installed for a 25-year-old male patient at his village home since September 2016 suggested that the unit is able to support required peritoneal dialysis procedures and deal with limitations of rural home environment for the medical treatments. While the prototype still needs further development on material weight and interior environmental comfort, the invention represents a convergence through multidisciplinary approaches to transform healthcare services and encourages awareness of the necessary collaborations between medical discipline and built environment. At the same time, it demonstrates an alternative community-based approach toward specific problems in healthcare that cannot be solved by the traditional system alone.

Designing accessible MOOCs to expand educational opportunities for persons with cognitive impairments

ABSTRACT Despite the promotion of equal access to education, the proportion of persons with disabilities decreases drastically from primary school to higher education, resulting in a lower level of education. This lack of qualification represents an additional obstacle to employment opportunities, reinforcing their exclusion from the social sphere. In recent years, computer-based approaches to education have undergone a real revolution, as reflected by the massive growth of MOOCs platforms. As they are flexible enough, they could provide a real opportunity to create learning environments that are beneficial to persons with disabilities. Unfortunately, most MOOCs are not ‘sufficiently’ accessible, especially for persons with cognitive impairments and limited learning capacities. In this article, we describe the results of a participatory design process that involved students with cognitive impairments and specialists from various fields of expertise and led to the co-design of new functionalities to enhance the accessibility of a MOOC player. We also present the results of a multiple-cases study evaluation of a first prototype, whose results support the positive impact of our design decisions. Finally, we propose an integrative framework for the design of accessible e-learning systems derived from the different needs and guidelines that emerged during the process.

Designing human-centric software artifacts with future users: a case study

The quality and quantity of participation supplied by human beings during the different phases of the design and development of a software artifact are central to studies in human-centered computing. With this paper, we have investigated on what kind of experienced people should be engaged to design a new computational artifact, when a participatory approach is adopted. We compared two approaches: the former including only future users (i.e., novices) in the design process, and the latter enlarging the community to expert users. We experimented with the design of a large software artifact, in use at the University of Bologna, engaging almost 1500 users. Statistical methodologies were employed to validate our findings. Our analysis has provided mounting evidence that expert users have contributed to the design of the artifact only by a small amount. Instead, most of the innovative initiatives have come from future users, thus surpassing some traditional limitations that tend to exclude future users from this kind of processes. We here challenge the traditional opinion that expert users provide typically a more reliable contribution in a participatory software design process, demonstrating instead that future users would be often better suited. Along this line of sense, this is the first paper, in the field of human-centric computing, that discusses the relevant question to offer to future users a larger design space, intended as a higher level of freedom given in a software design situation, demarcated by precise design constraints. In this sense, the outcome has been positive.

Development of the Uni Virtual Clinic: an online programme for improving the mental health of university students

ABSTRACT There is growing recognition of the importance of addressing the mental health needs of young people attending university. Anonymous, scalable, and evidence-based online interventions can help to reduce burden on university services and increase access to care for marginalised or disconnected students. This paper reports the participatory design methods used to develop the Uni Virtual Clinic (UVC), a comprehensive online programme that was designed to prevent and treat mental health problems and related issues in university students. Data evaluating the participatory design process is also presented. The potential for the implementation of the UVC within university-based counselling services is strong, and has potential to reduce the prevalence of mental disorders in a high-risk group of young people.

Post-conflict reconstruction in the Middle East and North Africa region: A bidirectional parametric urban design approach

Post-conflict reconstruction is a major topic in war-torn cities in the Middle East and North Africa region. Rather than being limited to re-establishing pre-conflict conditions, new formats of urban settings may be adopted, both for the design and quality of urban space, as well as for the design and building process. This article proposes a combined top-down and bottom-up design approach, supported by parametric urban design modelling. As sustainable (re-)development of the urban-scape requires coordination across different scales, a top-down approach is partly needed for reasons of coordination. As participatory design processes involving local stakeholders work from the partial to the whole, a bottom-up approach is partly needed for reasons of inclusion. By means of a parametric urban model combining both overview and detail, the two approaches can be combined. This article shows the theoretical framework and, by way of example, applies the model to Fallujah in Iraq as a case study.

Collaborative and Inclusive Process with the Autism Community: A Case Study in Colombia About Social Robot Design

One of the most promising areas in which social assistive robotics has been introduced is therapeutic intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders (CwASD). Even though there are promising results in therapeutic contexts, there is a lack of guidelines on how to select the appropriate robot and how to design and implement the child–robot interaction. The use of participatory design (PD) methods in the design of technology-based processes for CwASD is a recognition of the stakeholders as “experts” in their fields. This work explores the benefits brought by the use of PD methods in the design of a social robot, with a specific focus on their use in autism spectrum disorders therapies on the Colombian autism community. Based on what proved to be effective in our previous research, we implemented participatory methods for both the CwASD and the stakeholders. The process leverages the active role of participants using a focus group approach with parents and specialists, and scene cards, narrative and handmade generative methods with the children. To overcome some challenges of traditional PD processes, where not all community actors are considered, we included a Colombian community consisting of therapists, nurses, caregivers and parents. The proposed PD process provides an opportunity to learn from several community actors (and thus different cultural and social aspects of developing countries), improving traditional robot design methods. In this way, the findings are summarized through a set of guidelines regarding the design of a social robot-device suitable to be implemented for robot-assisted therapy for CwASD.

Toward a Framework for Capturing Interpretability of Hierarchical Fuzzy Systems—A Participatory Design Approach

Hierarchical fuzzy systems (HFSs) have been shown to have the potential to improve the interpretability of fuzzy logic systems (FLSs). However, challenges remain, such as “How can we measure their interpretability?” “How can we make an informed assessment of how HFSs should be designed to enhance interpretability?” The challenges consist of measuring the interpretability of HFSs include issues such as their topological structure, the number of layers, the meaning of intermediate variables, and so on. In this article, an initial framework to measure the interpretability of HFSs is proposed, combined with a participatory user design process to create a specific instance of the framework for an application context. This approach enables the subjective views of a range of practitioners, experts in the design and creation of FLSs, to be taken into account in shaping the design of a generic framework for measuring interpretability in HFSs. This design process and framework are demonstrated through two classification application examples, showing the ability of the resulting index to appropriately capture interpretability as perceived by system design experts.