Participatory Design
Once you have your logic model outcomes and resources in place - which you have determined community stakeholders, including teens - it can be beneficial to use a participatory design process to determine activities and outputs. In this section of the module we’ll provide an overview of participatory design and ideas on how you can get started integrating the technique into your connected learning work. The terms participatory design and co-design are often used interchangeably. Through participatory design, co-designers learn together and work towards solutions to a common design goal.
The overarching principles of participatory design are1:
- All co-designers are equal partners
- Every opinion is valid and of equal importance
- Design takes place without constraints
- There are no preconceived notions
Within those co-design principles, the following elements are critical:
- Relationships: centered on trust and power sharing
- Flexibility and agility: centered on scaffolding learning, risk taking and failure
- Teamwork: centered on embracing different perspectives and varying levels of expertise
- Openness to learning: centered on co-learning, new ideas, and not being an expert
We are using participatory design in this module as it is a highly customizable approach for learning with and from community members - including teens - and building programs and services based on that learning.
References
- 1. VRtality.org