discovering unmet needs & new solutions through participatory design

Jennifer Briselli Managing Director, Experience Strategy & Design

@[email protected]

Participatory DesignDiscovering Unmet Needs & New Solutions

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

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

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

?

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

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


Involving the people we’re serving through design as participants in the process.


Credit: Liz Sanders

Design Process

DISCOVER

diverge on needs &

assets

Adapted from “Double Diamond Model of Product Definition and Design” from UK Design Council

DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE

diverge on needs &

assets

converge on opportunities

Design Process


DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE

diverge on needs &

assets

converge on opportunities diverge on ideas

Design Process


DISCOVER SYNTHESIZE GENERATE FOCUS

diverge on needs &

assets


converge on solutions

Design Process



diverge on needs &

assets

EVALUATE


converge on solutions

Design Process




Generates design principles & direction

Generates viable solution concepts

Where does participatory design fit in?

“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

Generative methods uncover latent needs.

Image: Liz Sanders

For example…

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.

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

Framing

Stakeholders, Co-creators, End Users

Challenges & Goals

Questions & Unknowns

Assumptions & Hypotheses

Choosing Activities

Framing

Many types, many goals

• Trust Building

• Collaboration

• Narrative

• Generative

• Reflective

Choosing activities & methods

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

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

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

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

Planning

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

Facilitating

Be prepared

Be yourself

Be flexible & adaptive

Be reflective

Be warm & friendly

Facilitating: Participation

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

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

Analyzing

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

Raw Data• Notes• Photos• Videos• Audio• Artifacts

StandardizedData• Spreadsheets• Post-its

Participant Clusters

Opportunity Clusters

Theme/Affinity ClustersIdentified Patterns

Potential Output• Focus Areas• Design Characteristics• Design Principles• Solution Concepts• Prototype Ideas

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

?

Instead of asking people to tell us “what they want,” why not give them the language and tools to show us what they want... Or even to create it themselves.

Thinking about…

What are the most important takeaways for your organization?

What are the most important questions left unanswered?

Wrap Up – Q & A

Jennifer Briselli Managing Director, Experience Strategy & Design

@[email protected]

Thanks!