An introduction to the person-centred approach as an attitude for participatory design

This paper is one of three talks which reflect on the use of participatory design methods, especially in the context of design for mental health and wellbeing. In them we: introduce the Person-Centred Approach as a framework for conducting Participatory Design; outline the method of Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR); and present a heuristic case study of these approaches being developed by a multidisciplinary design research team with Mind, a UK mental health charity. In this paper, we introduce the Person-Centred Approach (PCA) as found in psychotherapy, education and conciliation processes. We propose that this approach can help the field of Participatory Design recognise that researchers and research teams constructively inform their practice through the attitudes they bring to what is necessarily a relational situation. The PCA will be of interest to researchers working with mental health and wellbeing communities in particular, but may also be valuable in offering a framework for Participatory Design as a broad field of practice. The paper describes different modes of practice to be found in psychotherapy and outlines key aspects of the PCA, before discussing its implications for doing Participatory Design

An introduction to IPR as a Participatory Design research method

This paper outlines the method of Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) as a Participatory Design method, especially in the context of design for mental health and wellbeing. IPR is more commonly used in psychotherapy and other helping professions to help trainees and practitioners and their clients reflect on their process, using AV recordings of interactions for the facilitation of deep and accurate recall. We propose that it can provide a mechanism for reflection on team working and relational aspects of Participatory Design. The paper discusses the rationale for using IPR and the ways in which the method relate to phenomenological inquiry (including the Person-Centred Approach); it describes an IPR research method protocol, and finishes with a discussion of the implications for Participatory Design methodologies

Reflections on a craft design protocol

For some years I have been working on a design protocol of craft, which aims to unearth the working principles of one cultural area (contemporary craft) of production for the benefit of another (interaction design). The methodology that led to its formulation comprised my research as a doctoral student in Interaction Design, and made up the bulk of my thesis [22]. The protocol has recently been more fully explored for the craft community, with each tenet explored in more depth [24]; however, several important publications and conferences in the field have emerged since its initial formulation and if it is to have any relevance, the protocol needs to be revisited in light of them. These include Sennett’s The Craftsman [36], Risatti’s Theory of Craft [34], and Adamson’s Thinking Through Craft [1]. In addition conferences such as Neocraft [3], and collections of writings such as Extra/Ordinary [5], which includes Mazanti’s SuperObjects model of craft [28], have developed the field immensely. This paper critically reflects on the protocol in this new expanded context

Reflections on the heuristic experiences of a multidisciplinary team trying to bring the PCA to participatory design (with emphasis on the IPR method)

This paper introduces a heuristic case study, reflecting on the use of the Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) method as part of An Internet of Soft Things, a multidisciplinary design research project working with the UK mental health charity, Mind. The three authors represent three different disciplines within the project – Psychotherapy, e-Textiles, and Human-Computer Interaction – and naturally bring their own experiences and expectations to the multidisciplinary team process. The aim of the project is to develop, through practice, a methodology for a Person-Centred Approach to design, informed by the theories and practice of Carl Rogers, and thereby to address the increasing need for researcher reflection in Participatory Design. The paper outlines the project and describes our experiences of IPR within it; it discusses how we are taking this work forward and closes with some guidelines based on our personal observations in working with this method

Facilitating a ‘non-judgmental’ skills-based co-design environment

This paper reflects on a pilot study for the design of a series of e-textiles workshops developed for the Nottinghamshire Mind Network community of mental health and wellbeing service users, managers and volunteers. The final workshops will form part of ‘An Internet of Soft Things’ (IoSofT) project, which seeks to develop a Person-Centred Approach (PCA) to design. The workshops should be experienced by participants as a non-judgemental environment, as one of the conditions of the Person-Centred Approach – unconditional positive regard (UPR) (Rogers, 1957). While the research team agree in theory that participants should feel safe and supported, putting non-judgement into practice in a multi - disciplinary environment, in which skills form the basis of workshop activity, has proved to be challenging. The paper introduces the key criteria of the PCA in psychotherapy, and describes the particular challenges that being non-judgemental presented to the textile designers and therapeutic practitioners who designed and facilitated the workshops. It presents an analysis of the design artefacts produced in the course of six workshop sessions (such as the ‘group agreement’), and participant feedback, and discusses the resulting framework that will be applied in the next iteration of workshops to enable participants’ comfort, creativity and autonomy

An exploratory study on the consequences of individual upcycling: is it worth making people feel attached to their upcycled products?

Product attachment, the emotional bond experienced with a product, is an emerging concept for sustainable production and consumption. The logic behind it is that when people are attached to any product, they are more likely to postpone its replacement or disposal. Some types of product have been studied regarding product attachment in past research but the focus has been on manufacturers ’ perspectives rather than on consumers’ ‘everyday creativity’ activities such as ‘individual upcycling’. Individual upcycling, creation or modification out of used materials resulting in a higher quality or value product than the composition al elements, is particularly relevant to product attachment. This is because upcycling, as a creative, engaging user activity, may offer the experiences of self-expression, group affiliation, special memories and pleasure, all of which are possible product attachment determinants. In the meantime, recent evidence suggests that the number of people who upcycle things has increased, possibly as a response to the contemporary ‘Maker Movement’ and aided by physical and digital resources. Despite this growth, individual upcycling has not been investigated extensively, especially its relation to product attachment and product longevity. Acknowledging this, this study investigated the consequences of individual upcycling with respect to product attachment and the product longevity of upcycled products, and compared the results with mass-produced products with the same functions through an exploratory questionnaire with 23 UK-based upcycling practitioners. The results demonstrated that the attachment to upcycled products is positively correlated with irreplaceability, and irreplaceability with product care and expected product longevity. The results also showed that the expected product lifetime years of the upcycled product with attachment are longer than the estimated average product lifetime years of the mass-produced products with the same functions

Participatory design and the humanist landscape [workshop]

This workshop (held in conjunction with the UBICOMP 2015: The 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and ISCW 2015: The 19th International Symposium on Wearable Computers) will bring together researchers and practitioners to reflect on the use of participatory design methods, especially in the context of design for wellbeing. Delegates will reflect both on the user experience of being part of such methods, and on the design team experience, in line with recent calls for reflexivity in HCI. The workshop will enable delegates to situate their practice in the broader co ntext of humanistic psychotherapy research, and implications for research methodologies and professional development will be discussed. Through a short series of talks, delegates will learn about attitudes and tools (specifically the Person Centred Approach and Interpersonal Process Recall) for reflection on team working and relational aspects of participatory design. The workshop will in turn contribute to the development of a person-centred framework for participatory and co-design research

Individual upcycling practice: exploring the possible determinants of upcycling based on a literature review

Individual upcycling – the creation or creative modification of any product out of used materials in an attempt to generate a product of higher quality or value than the compositional elements – has recently been advocated by many as a means to reduce waste, yet is still marginal. Considering the implied benefit to sustainable production and consumption, the most relevant question at this point may be how to scale up this marginal practice into mainstream practice to make a bigger impact in society and environment. In order to generate effective scaling-up strategies for change, it is essential to understand the determinants of upcycling (i.e. what drives and facilitates it). This paper reviews relevant contemporary literature and identifies a set of determinants. The synthesized result, despite its partiality, shows possible examples of design and policy implications for scaling-up, and leads to future research suggestions

Interpersonal Process Recall – a method for reflecting on co-design experiences

Our method uses video recording as a stimulus for recall and reflection, based on Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) which is borrowed from humanistic psychotherapy research. This Methods Story accompanies other media (videos, audio and transcript) which presents and demonstrates the method. We video recorded part of a workshop design session run at Oak Field School, Nottingham (UK), by the interdisciplinary 'An Internet Of Soft Things' project (http://aninternetofsoftthings.com), filming two co-designers: a member of the research team and a participant with a cognitive impairment. Using the IPR method, we played back the video and invited the co - designers to pause it and recall any thoughts and feelings which did not show up in the original co-design interaction. This made it possible to capture data that represents subjective experience more fully, giving a voice to participants, particularly those who may find it hard to express themselves in the moment, owing to a cognitive impairment. In a subsequent reflection, our participant describes the importance to him of researchers speaking slowly and with short words, listening, using Makaton if a ppropriate, and above all, being 'nice and friendly'