Editing Participatory design (section)

{{Short description|Active involvement of all stakeholders in the design process}}
{{Redirect|Co-design|design of hardware and software together|integrated design}}
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{{More footnotes needed|date=April 2009}}
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'''Participatory design''' (originally '''co-operative design''', now often '''co-design''') is an approach to design attempting to actively involve all stakeholders (e.g. employees, partners, customers, citizens, end users) in the design process to help ensure the result meets their needs and is [[usability|usable]]. Participatory design is an approach which is focused on processes and procedures of design and is not a design style. The term is used in a variety of fields e.g. [[software design]],  [[urban design]], [[architecture]], [[landscape architecture]], [[product design]], [[sustainability]], [[graphic design]], [[industrial design]], planning, and health services development as a way of creating environments that are more responsive and appropriate to their inhabitants' and users' cultural, emotional, spiritual and practical needs. It is also one approach to [[placemaking]].

Recent research suggests that designers create more innovative concepts and ideas when working within a co-design environment with others than they do when creating ideas on their own.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mitchell|first1=Val|last2=Ross|first2=Tracy|last3=Sims|first3=Ruth|last4=Parker|first4=Christopher J.|title=Empirical investigation of the impact of using co-design methods when generating proposals for sustainable travel solutions|journal=CoDesign|date=2015|volume=12|issue=4|pages=205–220|doi=10.1080/15710882.2015.1091894|url=https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/18877|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="The Value of Codesign">{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1177/1094670517714060|title = The Value of Codesign|year = 2018|last1 = Trischler|first1 = Jakob|last2 = Pervan|first2 = Simon J.|last3 = Kelly|first3 = Stephen J.|last4 = Scott|first4 = Don R.|journal = Journal of Service Research|volume = 21|pages = 75–100|doi-access = free}}</ref> Companies increasingly rely on their user [[Community|communities]] to generate [[New product development|new product ideas]], marketing them as "user-designed" products to the wider [[consumer market]]; consumers who are not actively participating but observe this user-driven approach show a preference for products from such firms over those driven by [[designer]]s. This preference is attributed to an enhanced identification with firms adopting a user-driven [[philosophy]], consumers experiencing empowerment by being indirectly involved in the design process, leading to a preference for the firm's products. If consumers feel dissimilar to participating users, especially in demographics or expertise, the effects are weakened. Additionally, if a user-driven firm is only selectively open to user participation, rather than fully inclusive, observing consumers may not feel socially included, attenuating the identified preference.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dahl |first1=Darren W. |last2=Fuchs |first2=Christoph |last3=Schreier |first3=Martin |date=August 2015 |title=Why and When Consumers Prefer Products of User-Driven Firms: A Social Identification Account |url=https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/mnsc.2014.1999 |journal=Management Science |language=en |volume=61 |issue=8 |pages=1978–1988 |doi=10.1287/mnsc.2014.1999 |issn=0025-1909}}</ref>

Participatory design has been used in many settings and at various scales. For some, this approach has a political dimension of user empowerment and democratization.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bannon|first1=Liam J.|title=Design matters in participatory design|last2=Ehn|first2=Pelle|publisher=Routledge handbook of participatory design|year=2012|pages=37–63}}</ref> This inclusion of external parties in the design process does not excuse designers of their responsibilities. In their article "Participatory Design and Prototyping", [[Wendy Mackay]] and [[Michel Beaudouin-Lafon]] support this point by stating that "[a] common misconception about participatory design is that designers are expected to abdicate their responsibilities as designers and leave the design to users. This is never the case: designers must always consider what users can and cannot contribute."<ref>{{Citation |last1=Mackay |first1=Wendy E. |title=Participatory Design and Prototyping |date=2020 |work=Handbook of Human Computer Interaction |pages=1–33 |editor-last=Vanderdonckt |editor-first=Jean |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27648-9_31-1 |access-date=2024-04-11 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-27648-9_31-1 |isbn=978-3-319-27648-9 |last2=Beaudouin-Lafon |first2=Michel |editor2-last=Palanque |editor2-first=Philippe |editor3-last=Winckler |editor3-first=Marco}}</ref>

In several [[Scandinavian countries]], during the 1960s and 1970s, participatory design was rooted in work with trade unions; its ancestry also includes [[action research]] and [[Sociotechnical system|sociotechnical design]].<ref>[http://cpsr.org/issues/pd/ Web Page on Participatory Design] on the site of [[Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility|CPSR]]. Retrieved 13 April 2006.</ref>