Co-design with communities. A reflection on the literature

Proceedings of the 16th Participatory Design Conference 2020 - Participation(s) Otherwise - Volume 1, 2020

Evidence and analysis of Community-Based Participatory Design (PD) and Co-Design programs are not abundant. Filling this gap allows for better understanding of (1) the value programs offer from a quantitative standpoint, and (2) how to formalize participation within PD. In this paper, we present evidence from a series of International Development Design Summits (IDDS), a PD-oriented program focused on low-cost technology co-design and co-production, in collaboration with local communities. The purpose is to provide opportunities for learning and practicing community-based PD in an intercultural setting. We examine data from five summits in Colombia between 2015-2018. We discuss the value of this approach across multiple groups, and how it can be understood as a measure of participation. We present evidence of participant benefits, including an exploratory analysis of self-perception using sentiment analysis. Finally, we discuss the challenges and potential directions for this work. This paper contributes to further understand the value of participation (the "co") in the context of community-based PD. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Interaction design; Interaction design process and methods; Participatory design.

2014

This doctoral research will examine the use of codesign-a "democratic approach that is focused on the processes and procedures of design…[that] collaboratively engages, consults and develops solutions to problems" (Cook, 2011, p. 50)-as a mechanism to build the capacity of lay people and communities to develop or influence socially sustainable solutions responsive to their needs and aspirations. The engagement of lay people and communities and their empowerment are complex phenomena through which individuals formulate meanings and actions that reflect their desired degree of participation in individual and collective decision-making processes (Tritter & McCallum, 2005). Therefore, this research also seeks to identify co-design processes and procedures that recognize different relevant forms of knowledge and experience of both professionals and lay people, while allowing for varying levels of participation in different stages of the design process.

CoDesign, 2020

Proceedings of the Tenth …, 2008

In this chapter, we share our design story of collaborating with community advocates working in a historically marginalized community. We focus on equitable and empowering co-design processes and creating a technology tool to represent the community leaders’ social justice activism: (1) negotiating roles to facilitate a participatory approach to design; (2) working across differences of language to develop equitable interactions; (3) using ethnographic methods to identify significant problems of practice; and (4) designing an equity-oriented intervention.

Human-Computer …, 2010

Information and Communication …, 2007

ICTD projects are usually driven along the three axes of technological innovation, development programs or new market creation. These drivers have to be complemented by a focus on the people served by ICT, and their needs. In this paper, we argue for the importance of human-driven design and research (HDDR) to take into account the four human dimensions of ICT: local practices; participatory design processes; sociocultural contexts, and political conditions. Building on our ethnographic and design research on the LINCOS project in Costa Rica and Hewlett-Packard's e-Inclusion program, we show how Lincos' success was impeded by its inattention to human design features, the deployment of a neoliberal discourse of community appropriation, and the market-driven focus of e-Inclusion. We conclude by situating ICTD in the larger context of human development, and with reflections on what constitutes sustainable, successful ICTD projects.

Proceedings of the …, 2007

Technology arguably has the potential to play a key role in improving the lives of people in developing regions. However, these communities are not well understood and designers must thoroughly investigate possibilities for technological innovations in these contexts. We describe findings from two field studies in India and one in Uganda where we explore technological solutions in the domains of communication, microfinance and education.

We aim to simplify a thematic framework, based on a literature review, to analyse the co-design process of ICT projects for community development. This literature review has focused on two notions of ‘Co-design’ and ’Development’ and its applicability in the field of Information and Communication Technologies for Development. The studied case is the co-design of a territorial web portal of Settat city which is a major part of a project performed by the University Hassan 1st of Settat-Morocco.

2017

This paper describes the research design of a mixed method information and communicat ion technology for development (ICT4D) study using design science research (DSR) and case study research in the pragmatic tradition. The study participants are a group of women working as domestic workers in Johannesburg, South Africa and a selected group of organisations. The organisations are included to gain an understanding of their approach to information inclusivity and to evaluate the resulting artefact. The novelty of this study is the combination of DSR with ICT4D, the use of journals as a self-documentation technique to collect data, followed by a design thinking workshop and interviews. The problem that the study addresses is how should the information needs that are meaningful to women working as domestic workers, be effectively translated through the use of ICT in order to enhance their experience of the good life as defined by Sen’s capability approach (1999) and to contribute to the ...