Pdot

Abstract

Participatory design (PD) is mostly conducted face-toface with the support of physical props. Although this is a valid and very beneficial approach, it is unfortunately not applicable in every project context. It is especially challenging when a project's stakeholders are widely distributed; software tools can address this challenge. A review of existing online annotation tools indicates that they do not meet the essential requirements for distributed PD tools. To address this issue, a prototype called Pdot has been developed and evaluated with some users whose feedback will inform its future development.

Paper or Pixel? Comparing Paper- and Tool-Based Participatory Design Approaches

“…To guide this, ten requirements (six user-based and four developer-based) were gathered from three main sources: a literature review (especially [2,4,5]), end-user survey results, and unstructured interviews with main developers of the portal. The requirements scoped our search that resulted in 21 tools of which only two can fulfil most of the ten requirements: Appotate and MyBalsamiq, with the latter having the higher maturity and usability (details are reported in [27]). Therefore myBalsamiq was chosen for comparing the effectiveness of the paper-based and tool-based PD approach in terms of the quality of feedback elicited.…”

Pushing boundaries of co-design by going online: Lessons learned and reflections from three perspectives

“…This variation afforded different levels of interaction and collaboration as we tried to rethink our design techniques. Paper-based PD approaches have been previously viewed as inefficient when working with widely distributed partners ( Heintz et al, 2014 ). However, Kidsteam Boise continued emphasizing low fidelity techniques (e.g., “bags of stuff”, big paper, and sticky notes), affording children opportunities to co-design with materials familiar to them as well as to stay active and “hands-on” as they designed.…”

“…Online and distributed participatory design (DPD) is an emerging subfield of PD pertaining to how physically or temporally distributed design teams coordinate activities to ensure equitable participation ( Constantin et al, 2021 ). Although DPD has been previously discussed in workshops and panels ( Danielsson et al, 2006 , Danielsson et al, 2008 , Naghsh et al, 2008 ), and has been available for quite some time, progress has been slow ( Heintz et al, 2014 , Lazarin and Almeida, 2016 , Muller and Druin, 2007 ) and it has not been broadly adopted in the domain of PD with children, principally cooperative inquiry ( Druin, 1999 , Fails et al, 2013 ). With the globalization of the world’s society and a vision to extend PD’s inclusive reach across geographic boundaries, arguments have been made to further advance children’s collaboration tools to enable distributed co-design ( Walsh & Foss, 2015 ).…”

“…In “PD in a box”, design packs are sent to children prior to sessions containing materials in addition to “fun stuff” that can support team cohesion ( Bonsignore, 2020 , Constantin et al, 2021 ). However, paper-based PD approaches are inefficient when working with widely distributed partners ( Heintz et al, 2014 ) and thus online tools in the form of groupware ( Lazarin & Almeida, 2016 ) are needed. There are ongoing considerations for new remote communication tools ( Antle & Frauenberger, 2020b ) such as virtual characters to support idea generation ( Constantin & Hourcade, 2018 ) and platforms that work synchronously and asynchronously ( Galvão, García, & Felipe, 2021 ), as well as non-technical tools for conducting participatory design ( Constantin et al, 2021 , Read et al, 2020 ).…”

Prototyping with purpose: Increasing participatory design with malleable interactive prototypes

“…Gumm et al (2006) gathered usage data through bug trackers, support cases and observation, conducted face-to-face workshops between users and developers, communicated designs using commented use cases and gathered data from users through web surveys. Heintz et al (2014) report on their development of a tool that allows users to provide feedback on interactive web prototypes, but also, asynchronously and later, report on a tool to help in the analysis of the collected feedback (Heintz & Law, 2018). Queiros et al (2023) report on their "situated participatory design" process, in which lo-fi prototypes were developed by the researchers based on insights from a workshop with teachers.…”