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This paper aims to explore a case of customer and user participation in an agile software development project, which produced a tailor‐made information system for workplace support as a step towards a theory of participatory design in agile software development.

Based on an integrated framework for user participation derived from the participatory design literature the research was performed as a case study and semi‐structured, open‐ended interviews were conducted with about a third of the development team and with a representative sample of key players and future users in the customer organization. The interview data were supplemented with company and project documents.

The paper found genuine customer and user participation carried out by onsite customers and by other operational staff in the form of direct and indirect participation and with functional and democratic empowerment. The onsite customers played informative, consultative and participative roles. The analysis revealed that planning games, user stories and story cards, working software and acceptance tests structured the customer and user participation. This form of user participation supported a balance between flexibility and project progress and resulted in a project and a product which were considered a success by the customer and the development organization. The analysis showed that the integrative framework for user participation can also fruitfully be used in a new context to understand what participatory design is and how, when and where it can be performed as an instance of a design process in agile development. As such the paper contributes to an analytical and a design theory of participatory design in agile development. Furthermore the paper explicates why participatory design contributes to the successful completion of the investigated project. By drawing on innovation theory it was found that participatory design in agile development bears the characteristics of a successful organizational innovation. Grounding further explanations in complex adaptive systems theory the paper provides an additional argument why participatory design despite some identified challenges fosters project staff to successfully carry out the agile development project.

The paper presents an exploratory, empirical study of an understudied phenomenon and contributes to theory building.

Participatory design involves users and other key stakeholders in processes that aim to ensure solutions generated meet their needs. This paper compares the processes and outcomes of two participatory design approaches (design thinking and co-design) to examine their utility in co-creating innovative service solutions for reducing household energy demand.

Design thinking and co-design were implemented in two independent convenience samples of household energy users in Queensland, Australia. Workshops were conducted online using Zoom and Padlet technology. Informed by the capability-practice-ability (CPA) portfolio, a critical analysis based on the research team's experiences with implementing the two participatory design approaches is presented.

The key distinguishing features that set design thinking apart from co-design is extent of user involvement, solution diversity and resource requirements. With a shorter duration and less intensive user involvement, co-design offers a more resource efficient means of solution generation. In contrast, design thinking expands the solution space by allowing for human-centred problem framing and in so doing gives rise to greater diversity in solutions generated.

Mapping the six constellations of service design outlined in the CPA portfolio to the research team's experiences implementing two different participatory design approaches within the same context reconciles theoretical understanding of how capabilities, practices and abilities may differ or converge in an applied setting.

Understanding the benefits and expected outcomes across the two participatory design approaches will guide practitioners and funding agencies in the selection of an appropriate method to achieve desired outcomes.

This paper compares two forms of participatory design (design thinking and co-design) for service innovation in the context of household energy demand offering theoretical and practical insights into the utility of each as categorised within the CPA portfolio.

The phenomenon of wicked problems is inextricably associated with a design process, especially participatory design. The management of wicked problems in participatory design, however, remains largely unexplored. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of the choosing by advantages (CBA) decision system to manage wicked problems in participatory design.

Two case studies, involving the application of CBA to make typical participatory design decisions, are evaluated to establish how responsively the CBA decision system operates in the midst of wicked problems in participatory design.

Findings point to the exploitability of some elements and attributes of the CBA process to manage wicked problems in participatory design, to some extent. The observed collaborative attributes of CBA is particularly helpful and play a key role in mitigating the adverse effects of wicked problems on collaboration in this regard.

The recommendation of the paper is the incorporation of CBA in the development of stakeholder involvement frameworks for a design process.

This paper contributes to knowledge on relying on elements and the attributes of a decision-making system, such as CBA, to manage stakeholder involvement in the design process, particularly focussing on wicked problems. The CBA decision system still remains emergent regarding its application and research in the AEC industry.

This paper aims to demonstrate how participatory design methodologies can be used for the design of interactive learning tools for children.

This paper presents the methodology employed for the design of a multimedia tool for teaching Greek to young children aged 6 to 12. The preliminary data collection included interviews, questionnaires and observations, whereas the actual design of the tool was carried out using a Participatory Design methodology which advocates a design approach that focuses on the intended user of the service or product, emphasising the active involvement of users throughout the design process.

The paper provides detailed information from each of the data collection techniques used. It also highlights the successes and difficulties in implementing participatory design in an e‐learning context.

Although participatory design has been used in the design of other systems, it is rarely used as the design framework of learning applications. So the paper expands one's knowledge of implementing participatory design methodologies in learning.

This paper focuses on an Egyptian experience of participation in the design of a vegetable and fruit market. In 1999, the re-design of the Tablita Market based on community participation was proposed as one of the components of a larger encompassing project aiming at the economic revitalization and environmental upgrading of Al-Darb Al-Ahmar; a physically deteriorating district located in the medieval city referred to as Historic Cairo. The idea was that the upgrade of this major local market would serve in promoting comprehensive environmental and physical upgrading of the whole Al-Darb Al-Ahmar. The funding for upgrading the Tablita Market required the vendors’ participation in the new design.

This paper presents the participatory design process that we initially designed as well as its development and adjustment during implementation. The aim is to discuss to what extent the conflicts of interest and power relations among actors, inflamed by the historic dimension of the place, affect the process of participatory design. What type of reactions did the participatory design process provoke among the vendors and other actors including the local government authorities? Are there winners and losers in participatory design?

In preparation for the community participation workshops, the findings from the Needs Assessment research were analyzed using the concept of Functional Opportunities (Shehayeb, 1995) to show the relation between the advantages and disadvantages, problems and concerns expressed by the different actors. These were then summarized into six categories of Functional Opportunities that represent the Goals of the vendors. The means of achieving these goals were to be explored in a series of workshops with different groups of vendors. The criteria for selecting each group was to mix in awareness levels, but not power, so as to give an opportunity for the less influential vendors to express their opinion and not be dominated by the more powerful leaders of the vendor community. A scaled model of the existing Tablita Market was constructed as an aid to help the participants spatially represent their ideas. After implementing the first and second group workshops, the reactions to those events necessitated a revision of the process as well as a readjustment among ourselves as to the goals and impacts of this process. It turned out to be much more than a process involving a group of vendors in the re-design of a market place.

The open science movement calls for transparent and retraceable research processes. While infrastructures to support these practices in qualitative research are lacking, the design needs to consider different approaches and workflows. The paper bases on the definition of ontologies as shared conceptualizations of knowledge (Borst, 1999). The authors argue that participatory design is a good way to create these shared conceptualizations by giving domain experts and future users a voice in the design process via interviews, workshops and observations.

This paper presents a novel approach for creating ontologies in the field of open science using participatory design. As a case study the creation of an ontology for qualitative coding schemas is presented. Coding schemas are an important result of qualitative research, and reuse can yield great potential for open science making qualitative research more transparent, enhance sharing of coding schemas and teaching of qualitative methods. The participatory design process consisted of three parts: a requirement analysis using interviews and an observation, a design phase accompanied by interviews and an evaluation phase based on user tests as well as interviews.

The research showed several positive outcomes due to participatory design: higher commitment of users, mutual learning, high quality feedback and better quality of the ontology. However, there are two obstacles in this approach: First, contradictive answers by the interviewees, which needs to be balanced; second, this approach takes more time due to interview planning and analysis.

The implication of the paper is in the long run to decentralize the design of open science infrastructures and to involve parties affected on several levels.

In ontology design, several methods exist by using user-centered design or participatory design doing workshops. In this paper, the authors outline the potentials for participatory design using mainly interviews in creating an ontology for open science. The authors focus on close contact to researchers in order to build the ontology upon the expert's knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to bring together the fields of participatory design, design for all, accessible music, tangible interaction and musicking to propose musicking for all, where participants can take part on their own terms, with their own intentions, initiatives and interpretations. The goal is to promote well‐being and health among the participants.

Co‐creative tangibles to enable musicking for all have been created and evaluated in a research project. The paper uses the experiences so far in this project to propose “musicking for all”, based on the fields mentioned in “Purpose” above.

Participatory design, design for all and tangible interaction forms a promising basis for musicking for all. Challenges/paradoxes emerge when applying participatory design approaches to design work involving disabled children.

The paper contributes with an original view on musicking for disabled children, and proposes musicking for all based on the fields of research mentioned in “Purpose” above. The value in the contribution is a fresh view on co‐creative tangibles for disabled children, and a suggested way forward to improve health and well‐being for this user group.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the sixth seminar in a seven-seminar series entitled, Innovative Technologies for Autism: Critical Reflections on Digital Bubbles, funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council. The aim of this particular seminar was to reflect upon the implications from neurodiverse communities for the development of technology for autism.

Presentations from key researchers and parental perspectives are reviewed, highlighting contemporary issues in neurodiverse populations that have important implications for autism.

Whilst there are many conditions associated with autism, most commonly intellectual disability (learning difficulties), this is not reflected in research. In addition, for child-based research, researchers are at least a generation older than participants and have had different digital-childhoods. Involving neurodiverse populations within participatory design sessions can address both of these issues. Understanding the context of the issues that the participatory design sessions address is crucial for developing participatory design principles that extend from one condition to another. This includes understanding when findings based upon verbal populations can be extended to non-verbal populations.

This paper offers up-to-date insights into how design principles from one condition extend to different conditions. Universal interaction and neurodiversity HCI are considered. This is important within neurodiverse populations, especially given the high rates of additional conditions that are associated with autism. Whilst the majority of autism research has involved verbal populations, the benefits of technology can extend to non-verbal populations.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on engaging young autistic people in the participatory design of the Autism & Uni online toolkit. The purpose of the toolkit is to provide autistic students with information and strategies for dealing with the challenges they may encounter when entering higher education. The study adds to existing research on participatory design by considering the specific needs and contributions of autistic people who are of average or higher intelligence, academically competent and generally articulate, a group that has received limited attention hitherto.

The research used a five-step design thinking approach and engaged multiple stakeholders at different points. The paper covers the whole process, paying particular attention to the final two steps of prototyping and testing. During three participatory design workshops, autistic people acted as co-designers and co-creators.

The workshops were effective in engaging participants in various design activities and rich discussions. Several assumptions about capabilities and preferences of autistic people were challenged. Design thinking proved a suitable framework for involving this group in the creation of solutions that serve their needs.

Because of the low number of workshop participants (11), research results may lack generalisability. Also, the workshop format with its focus on group activities may discourage some autistic people to take part. Further work is needed to explore this and to confirm the reported findings.

The paper offers practical advice regarding how to involve autistic people in co-design activities.

The research contributes to a strength-based view of autism, rather than one that focuses on deficits.

The paper provides new perspectives on the strengths of autistic people in participatory design settings, with a focus on those autistic people who are of average or higher intelligence and able to communicate effectively.

This paper reports on how prospective users may be involved in the design of entertaining educational computer games. The paper illustrates an approach, which combines traditional Participatory Design methods in an applicable way for this type of design. Results illuminate the users’ important contribution during game development, especially when intended for a specific target group. Unless prospective members of the target group are consulted it is difficult to foresee opinions of game content, aesthetics and the overall game experience of the users ‐ aspects very much included or at least related to the theoretical concept of intrinsic motivation. Whereas pedagogical experts can contribute with learning content, the users are the ones who can state what is actually fun or not. Users’ participation during the design process enables development of games that are directed to the learners and their expectations. The researchers collaborated with a multimedia design team in development of an educational web‐based computer game, developed for the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation.