Participatory Design
Making artifacts with participants, not for them.
What It Is
Design sessions where users actively create or manipulate design elements alongside the research team. People often can't articulate what they want, but they can show you when given the right materials.
How It Works
Provide building blocks — cards, templates, sketches, digital tools. Give a design challenge that's open enough for creative responses but focused enough to produce useful data. Observe the choices participants make and the reasoning behind them. Debrief on what they made and why.
What It Produces
Design concepts grounded in user mental models rather than designer assumptions. Shared understanding between the team and the people they're designing for. And artifacts that carry user intent directly into the design process — not filtered through a researcher's interpretation.