In this article, it mentioned that the word “participatory” might be self-explained, but the word “design” is a bit ambiguous. In other field of design, “what” is much emphasized whereas in participatory design(PD) that “how” is what it’s focusing on. That is to say, the practice of design in PD to be addressed while in Human Computer Interaction(HCI) for example focus on resultant product or service.
This triggers me to reflect on my past work experience in user experience(UX) design and service design. I’ve optimized a trading software through wireframing and usability testing and participated in another service design project to address the issue of the wayfinding system of a hospital in Taiwan. For the former one, UX design simply looks for concrete outcome of UX designer such as a interface that has higher usability and is more enjoyable. It will be great if the design process to be as simple as possible. At the same time, we don’t reflect much on the process and how we interact with each other. That is to say, the outcome is the only thing we care about.
However, in the latter one, it involves different stakeholders to design, which by definition is a participatory design, including patients, doctors, medical professionals, managers, and volunteers to join the workshop. It emphasizes on how these stakeholders interact with each other, hoping the practice of design will be brought into their context and have greater impact besides the certain tangible outcome we’ve made - a way finding system with clear identification system to make the space more accessible. I didn’t realize the difference between these two approaches until I read the material. It’s truly inspiring!