Co-design Tools Usability Testing

UX Research: Co-design methods

Designing with your users and stakeholders.

Group of people having a discussion together in an office space. — Photo by You X Ventures on Unsplash

Participatory design

Help users and stakeholders to actively contribute to the design process and give their valuable insights and feedback.

"Participatory design integrates two radical propositions about design. The first is the moral proposition that the people whose activity and experiences will ultimately be affected most directly by a design outcome ought to have a substantive say in what that outcome is. The second is the pragmatic proposition that the people who will need to adopt, and perhaps to adapt to an artefact or other outcome of design, should be included in the design process, so that they can more offer expert perspectives and preferences regarding the activity that the design will support, and most likely transform.

Carroll and Rosson, 2007

Procedure

Recruit participants. These can be people with relevant experience or background in the design space, business stakeholders or anyone else playing a part in the project.
Conduct workshops. Plan activities to encourage participation from everyone. There can be different levels of participation from people —
they could just share their experiences and stories, brainstorm ideas and make mind maps, or create prototypes. It depends entirely on the context of your project and your participants.
Record sessions and take notes. As always, observe everything, record conversations with participants and take notes about the outcomes of your workshops.

Example

In 'Participatory Design and the Making of health', Dr. Joyce Lee talks about her son's life threatening allergies and how the instructions provided by healthcare were confusing to understand in case of emergencies. She recorded a video of her son drawing and narrating the same instructions which are much easier to understand. This video went viral and inspired further prototypes. She talks about the importance of involving patients and other healthcare partners in the process of healthcare design.

Sensemaking

Part i cipatory design workshops can provide powerful insights for the project through the contribution of stakeholders. The information, ideas and artifacts from these workshops can be analysed to make design decisions, find a direction to move forward in the process, and again keep involving stakeholders as needed.

Generative toolkits

Design toolkits with specific activities and get inspired by how your participants engage with them. This method also advocates for active involvement of people in the design process. Participants are asked to do specific activities and create artifacts using the tools provided to them. These artifacts can give designers a lot of insight into what people feel and how they think.

We put a large number of components together into 'toolkits'. People select from the components in order to create 'artifacts' that express their thoughts, feelings and/or ideas. The resulting artifacts may be in the form of collages, maps, stories, plans, and/or memories.

A toolkit usually contains a background on which to work, together with a large number of simple and ambiguous components that can be arranged and juxtaposed in a variety of ways.

E.B.-N Sanders, 2000

Procedure

Decide on the information you are looking to get through the toolkits. There are a lot of different types of toolkits such as sensitizing toolkit, emotional toolkit, cognitive toolkit, etc. which serve different purposes.
Create the toolkits. Make sure they are easy to understand by the participants, you can include a set of instructions for the activity. Provide all the material they might need to complete this activity.
Ask questions, take notes and analyse the artifacts created through the toolkits to get insights into your design space.

Example

My team created 5 different toolkits to engage with our stakeholders about the problem of waste management in our city. Our main purpose with the toolkits was to get information about the behavior of people while managing waste, how they feel about this issue, their cognitive understanding of waste segregation and their emotional response to the impact on the environment because of this problem. Based on the outcome of these toolkits, we went on to create design concepts to tackle this issue.

Sensemaking

This completely depends on the type of information you get from each toolkit. You can analyse the emotional involvement of people into certain issues, find patterns in their behavior or get insights into their understanding of a process or a concept.

Participatory mapping

Work with members of a community to generate insights about important social issues. This group based qualitative method helps researchers address social problems by working together with members of a community. The members are engaged in an activity to use a map to indicate important areas, services and their relationships with places in a local area.

"Participants create a map that reflects their daily experiences and perceptions; with this visual reference in front of them, they can acknowledge and discuss features that are influential from their points of view."

White and Stephenson, 2014

Procedure

Recruit participants. Identify people you want to work with, usually this is someone with local knowledge of a community and experience in the problem space.
Plan the mapping activities. Would you want the participants to work on a physical map, or use digital tools? Consider their familiarity with technology, the collaborative nature of your activity and relevant factors to your project to pick the most suitable option.
Have facilitators in your session. Someone to support the participants and guide them through the activity.
Record everything. With informed consent from the participants, take extensive notes of their conversations or record the sessions to analyse later.

Example

Project Accept, a community-randomized trial of HIV counseling and testing sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, used participatory mapping as a formative research method.

It was used to identify community boundaries, learning about high-risk places and exploring potential counseling and testing sites to increase access to these services for the community. (Maman et al., 2009)

Sensemaking

The maps generated through this method can be analysed to find important information about the area and community, such as places visited frequently or experience of community members with certain locations. Notes from the session such as conversations of community members and their approach to the mapping activity can also reveal a lot of useful information.

Cognitive mapping

Understand people's mental models about a place, process, or a system. By asking participants to draw a visual representation of how they think about a concept or navigate through a place, important relationships and patterns can be discovered.

A cognitive map helps break down complex research questions, establish priorities for follow up research, and add clarity to abstract concepts.

Sarah Gibbons, Nielsen Norman Group

Procedure

Prepare your participants for the activity. Let them know what to expect without giving away too many details (so they don't prepare). Inform that you will be asking them to write or draw stuff.
Find the right materials and place to conduct the session. You can use paper, pencils, colored pens, stickers or a white board to help them draw. Many people are uncomfortable with drawing, so materials that let them erase and redraw can help with the activity, along with a comfortable space.
Ask participants to draw from memory and talk through their process. This can include how they navigate in a physical or metaphorical space, their idea of a concept or process, or how they use a service.
Record the session and take notes. As always, inform your participants and with their permission record everything to get as many details as you can.

Example

My team used cognitive mapping in a project to explore how people feel about Bloomington, Indiana as a smart and connected community. In the sessions, we asked our participants to draw a map of their neighbourhood in Bloomington and indicate places that made them feel positive about the city.

Sensemaking

The maps collected from participants can be used to understand patterns in how people perceive something, and give an insight into their way of thinking and navigating through the problem space. Notes from conversations with participants during the activity can be analysed for more details about the same.

Behavioral mapping

Observe, track and record behaviors in a specific setting or time. It can be either place based to observe the behavior of people in a particular setting, or individual based which follows the activities of selected people over different locations and time.

Behavioral maps are used to document readily observable characteristics, movements, and activities,including approximate ages and genders, whether people are alone or with others, what they are doing, time spent at fixed locations or in transit, and the details of environmental context.

Bella Martin and Bruce Hanington, Universal Methods of Design

Procedure

Place-centered mapping: Have a plan of the place you want to observe and note any significant areas, objects related to your problem space. You can decide beforehand which behavior you want to record, or have an open ended approach where you record everything that seems significant.
Individual-centered mapping: Allow the participant to get comfortable with the idea of being observed. Record their movement and behavior at different places.
Recording the behavior: This can be done either in real time by taking notes or by setting up cameras at specific locations.

Example

A study was conducted in Australia to examine children's free play in their neighborhood based on the access they had to safe public open spaces, their mobility and the variations by factors such as age, gender or socioeconomic status. The mapping activity was done around several primary schools, and was combined with a survey to get more input from children. (Veitch et al., 2008)

Sensemaking

The video recordings, notes or any other data gathered from behavior mapping sessions across different locations or time can be combined to identify patterns in behavior, frequency of accessing specific areas and understanding the motivation behind people's behavior.

Opportunity mapping

Identify opportunities within an area to get insight for creating new services or improving existing ones, based on input from participants.

Procedure

Identify an area or community for conducting the mapping.
Recruit participants that are familiar with, or residents of that area. Keep in mind different factors such as age, gender, occupation to get diverse perspectives from participants.
Ask them to locate places or services they are familiar with. This can be done on a physical or digital map of the selected area. Invite them to share their experiences with different places or services, their opinions on improvements or any unaddressed needs that can lead to new opportunities. Alternatively, you can also ask them to draw their own map indicating these areas.

Example

My team used Opportunity Mapping in a research project to figure out areas for improvement within my city. We asked participants to draw a map of all the services they used within the city like shopping, gyms, health centers, etc. We then invited them to share their experiences with these services and identify any scope for improvement.

Sensemaking

The maps generated through these sessions can be analysed to get a better idea of opportunities for improvement within specific communities or areas. Getting a personal account from people who have experienced different services can give you a lot of insight into their use, help you identify pain points and needs to create new services.

References

Carroll J., Rosson M. (2007) Participatory design in community informatics.

Sanders E.B.-N (2000) Generative Tools for Co-Designing.

White D., Stephenson R. (2014) Using Community Mapping to Understand Family Planning Behavior.

Martin B., Hanington B. (2012) Universal methods of design: 100 ways to research complex problems, develop innovative ideas, and design effective solutions. Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers.

Maman S., Lane T., Ntogwisangu J., Modiba P., Vanrooyen H., Timbe A., Fritz, K., Visrutaratna S. (2009) Using Participatory Mapping to Inform a Community-Randomized Trial of HIV Counseling and Testing. Field Methods, 21(4), 368–387.

J. Veitch, J. Salmon, K. Ball (2008) Children's active free play in local neighborhoods: a behavioral mapping study, Health Education Research, Volume 23, Issue 5, October 2008, Pages 870–879.