Towards an Evolutionary Understanding on the Success of Participatory Design

DS 69: Proceedings of E&PDE 2011, the 13th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education, London, UK, 08.-09.09.2011

Year: 2011
Editor: Kovacevic, Ahmed, Ion, William, McMahon, Chris, Buck, Lyndon and Hogarth, Peter
Author: Gulari, Melehat Nil; Börü, Asl
Section: International Collaboration and Global Product Development
Page(s): 721-726

Abstract

The notion of `participation, democratisation of design' is not only a movement for social innovation but is also a powerful tool as a human centred approach to innovate product, service or an idea for technology, but also a strategy for the field of design and business. However the complicated nature of participatory design may result in the failure of projects. The concept of participatory design is similar to climb “mount improbable”. Mount Improbable is the metaphor developed by Dawkins to support Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection. He uses the term "mount improbable" to explain the development of natural objects or events, and how unlikely it is that these natural phenomena are simply a result of coincidence. The concept of climbing mount improbable could be devised to understand the innovation process in participatory design. How do innovations evolve when using participatory methods? This paper examines the user involvement in participatory design with evolutionary understanding of success of products "selection" phenomenon, either natural or artificial, which is explored through the perspective of design.

Keywords: Participatory innovation, evaluation criterias, evolutionary methods

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