Workshop presented at HXD 2019

1. Jennifer Briselli
VP, Experience Strategy & Service 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 or organization?
How has it been successful for others?
What does it look like? How do you do it?
Overview

3. “If I had asked people what
they wanted, they would
have said faster horses.”
Henry Ford

4. “If I had asked people what
they wanted, they would
have said faster horses.”
????
?

5. If asking people “what they want,” doesn’t work,
what are we supposed to do?

6. What is Participatory Design?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

16. 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?

17. “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
Why it’s useful

21. Generative methods uncover latent needs.

22. For example…

25. For example…
Users often talk about wanting to have an “easy to
navigate” site and “answers at their fingertips,” but
when they created imaginary screens, they focused
less on easy navigation and more on making sure
the interface would know the person viewing it and
remind them of key information, pre-empting
questions and the need to navigate much at all.

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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…

29. Framing

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

31. Many types, many goals
• Trust Building
• Collaboration
• Narrative
• Generative
• Reflective
Choosing activities & methods

32. Participants help us understand their needs via storytelling. These
activities are intended to elicit memories and help build empathy and
understanding, building trust and identifying opportunities along the way.
Examples:
• Journey mapping
• Love letter/breakup letter
• Collaging
• Empathy mapping
• Knowledge hunt
• Reenactments
‘Narrative’ activities

35. Participants generate ideas and create prototypes of products, services, or
experiences
• Sometimes participants create viable solution concepts
• Sometimes participants create items that give designers insight &
direction
Examples:
• Magic screen/button/object
• Interface toolkit
• Physical/paper/rapid prototyping
• Fill in the blank
• Ideal workflow
• Ecosystem mapping
‘Generative’ activities

39. Participants make connections and judgments that help us understand the
value of potential design solutions. These activities help participants and
designers evaluate and understand the value of existing experiences or
potential future design solutions.
Examples:
• Card sorting
• Value ranking
• Storyboard/Concept speed dating
• Bodystorming/Gamestorming
‘Reflective’ activities

42. 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 doctor and patient.”
Design Prompts

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

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

45. 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

46. 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

47. 1. Identify a design goal for your topic problem statement
2. Write the 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 [patient/caregiver/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
Framing: Let’s Try It

48. Planning

49. 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

54. Facilitating

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

56. Document Document Document
• Dedicated note taker(s)
• Photograph
• Record audio & visual when possible (consent is key)
• Keep artifacts when possible
Ask participants to tell you about what they create
• 1 on 1
• Show & tell
• Share a story
• Write a commercial
• Create a pitch
Facilitating: Capturing Value

57. What they create
is often less important than
how they describe its value.

58. 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.

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

60. Break

61. 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.

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

63. Analyzing

64. Cut irrelevant or incomplete information
Get everything into a common format
Follow your instinct… analysis is as much art as science
Expect to spend at least 2 hours of analysis
for every hour spent facilitating.
Analyzing

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

72. input: “For example if you have a prescription and you
need to know if it’ll be covered, you can put it in
there.”
If – Then Machine
camera: “So if you needed to speak directly to
someone on the other end.”
microphone: “So you can talk if you need to.”
keypad: “If you had other information you want to
type in; say, a doctor’s diagnosis.”
output: “Marching orders & various options you have
can print out here if you need them.”
screen: “Different options show up on screen.”

73. “My doctor says I need an
MRI. How much will it
cost? And what are my
options?”

75. 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

76. Jennifer Briselli
VP, Experience Strategy & Service Design
@jbriselli
jbriselli@madpow.com
Thanks!