A framework for organizing the tools and techniques of participatory design

Elizabeth Sanders, Eva Brandt and Thomas Binder note that participatory design has grown rapidly over the past two to three decades, expanding from its early focus on information and communication technology into space design, product development, industrial design, architecture, and service and transformation design. With that growth has come confusion about which tools and techniques to use, when, and for what purpose. The paper responds by proposing a framework, built around the dimensions of form, purpose and context, meant to help organize the proliferation of participatory design tools and techniques and give researchers and practitioners a clearer basis for choosing among them when engaging non-designers in design activity. Published in the Proceedings of the 11th Biennial Participatory Design Conference (PDC '10), page 195. Credits: Sanders, E. B.-N., Brandt, E., & Binder, T. (2010). A framework for organizing the tools and techniques of participatory design. Proceedings of the 11th Biennial Participatory Design Conference on - PDC ’10, 195. http://doi.org/10.1145/1900441.1900476