Exploring user gains in participatory design processes with vulnerable children

This paper contributes to the debate on benefits that children can gain through their involvement in Participatory Design (PD) and highlights the importance of user gains in relation to vulnerable children. As vulnerable children are prone to marginalisation, this paper explores the user gains they may acquire when participating in PD processes. We report on the results of `Making Things!': a long-term PD project to (co-)design FabLab workshops for the future together with local, vulnerable children (6-12 y/o). The analysis points to three benefits that these children gain through their participation: developing self-esteem, learning-by-doing, and broadening their horizons. Based on our findings, we pinpoint the importance of an approach to PD that is sensitive to the complexities of participants (cf. `Design for vulnerability') and discuss the need for suitable methods to assess children's user gains.1status: Published onlin