Decolonizing and Indigenizing the Academic Library: A Participatory Design Approach

<p>This presentation highlight a new initiative at the Montana State University Library: User<br> Experience with Underrepresented Populations (UXUP). The goals of the UXUP project are both<br> practical and political. Practically, UXUP aims to create better user experiences for our campus’s<br> Native American student population. Politically, UXUP aims to create new space for Native<br> voices to enter the decision-making structures of the Library. To achieve these goals, we<br> followed the methodology of Participatory Design, which has its roots in Scandinavian systems<br> design of the 1970s. Participatory Design begins with the idea that the user and the designer<br> each possess skills and perspectives of equal worth. This equity is realized through a practice of<br> collaborative power-sharing and decision-making that deeply connects the user with the design<br> outcome. For the UXUP project, the Library worked with our Native American community to<br> develop a participatory design practice anchored by a Native American student group<br> empowered to make design decisions. This talk will overview our design principles, process, and<br> products, including a discussion of the connections between Scandinavian participatory design<br> and indigenous research methodologies that seek to deconstruct oppressive, colonial power<br> structures. The UXUP project can serve as a model for empathetic and collaborative design<br> research.