Design Participation Tactics: Redefining User Participation in Design

How can users take part and what are the potential roles of users in participating in design processes? In which parts of the design processes can users take part and what are the roles of designers and of other stakeholders? These questions indicate that there are many actors (both addressees and addressors), processes, and social systems involved. They influence each other mutually and their combinations make for the great variety of Design Participation cases. The discussion of this paper starts with the proposition: Design Participation is about the interaction between designer and user. In order to understand the rationale of Design Participation, the first step is to define the words ‘Design ’ and ‘Participation ’ separately within the ‘space ’ of designers and users. “Both words are ambiguous, ” Stringer (1972) expressed, “Design can refer either to the design, in the sense of a plan for a product, or to the process of designing. Participation can mean having a piece of something in common with others – sharing the cake; or doing something in common with others – playing in a game of football. ” Such simple definitions already provide many implications. ‘Design Participation ’ is a complicated issue and it is important to understand its fundamental meaning from its terminology. The first board concerted attempt by the design community to investigate the issues of user involvement in the design process was an international conference entitled ‘Design Participation ’ in 1971, which was sponsored and organised by the Design Research Society (DRS), the multi-disciplinary learned society for the worldwid