Designing the Internet of Toys for and with Children: A Participatory Design Case Study

Abstract

PD is an 'approach towards computer system design in which the people destined to use the system play a critical role in designing it ' (Schuler & Namioka, 1993, p. xi). It is a diverse field, with by a rich history and drawing on different disciplines including the social sciences, software engineering and design. 9 Designing the Internet of Toys for and with Children … 183 A Brief HistoryPD originated in Scandinavia in the 1970s and 1980s out of a democratic commitment to empower workers in an increasingly computerized work environment. The idea was that those who would use or be impacted by technology in the workplace should have a critical role in its design (Robertson & Simonsen, 2013). This premise to give workers a voice had its roots in society at large. Since the early '60s, various social, political and civil rights movements had been striving for more decision-making power for those affected by these decisions. Motivated by the values of democracy, action researchers partnered with labour unions to enable workers to co-determine the shape and scope of the technology in their workplace (Spinuzzi, 2005). These early PD practitioners saw themselves as facilitators who attempted to empower workers to make their own decisions, which they considered a basic human right (Clement, 1994). The ultimate goal was to develop inclusive and democratic design solutions (Robertson & Simonsen, 2013). This ethical stance, that still underlies PD today, stems from a responsibility to consider the impact of design on people's lives and environments. Often cited in this context are Winograd and Flores (1986, p. xi): 'We encounter the deep question of design when we recognize that in designing tools we are designing ways of being '.The political and emancipatory rationales of PD went alongside more pragmatic ones; users 1 and designers 2 had to learn from each other in order to develop suitable technological solutions. Users were seen as experts in their work domain, and designers as experts in the design process and technology in general (Robertson & Simonsen, 2013). However, in the early years of PD, most technology was custom-made for the workplace and PD typically addressed small-scale systems. Corporations nowadays are increasingly buying generic software, and, at the same time, technology use has expanded into our homes and leisure time. This proliferation of new technologies and domains has widened the scope of PD, making it increasingly difficult to anticipate all different use practices, both desirable and undesirable ones.

Tick Box Design: A bounded and packageable co-design method for large workshops

“…In HCI research and design, participation of users is generally considered valuable and worthwhile. This participation has traditionally been positioned with a focus on democratization and end user involvement in the design processes in line with the Scandinavian traditions of participatory design (Bødker, Kensing, , & Simonsen, 2004;Ehn, 2017;Frauenberger, Good, & Keay-Bright, 2011;Islind & Lundh Snis, 2018;Iversen & Smith, 2012;Moffatt, McGrenere, Purves, & Klawe, 2004;Van Mechelen, Zaman, Bleumers, & Mariën, 2019). Participation of users in design is noted across contexts, like ubicomp (Hornecker et al, 2006) and games design (Chomutare, Johansen, Hartvigsen, & Årsand, 2016), and with different populations, including the elderly (Lindsay, Jackson, Schofield, & Olivier, 2012) and the displaced (Fisher, Yefimova, & Yafi, 2016).…”

Enabling children to design for others with expanded proxy design

“…Co-design has become an established practice in the IDC community. Many papers provide insights for others wanting to follow this tradition with rich accounts of co-design sessions that emphasise what was done and what was developed or designed [67,1]). Other papers describe methods and techniques for engaging with children with the emphasis in these cases being on the evaluation of the methods against intended gains [72,69].…”