participatory design

In one of the grant applications that we've been bandying about, one theme has had to do with participatory design.  The idea is not particularly new.  When a new building or infrastructure is being contemplated, receiving input from the citizens who will be affected by the structure is a critical thing.  My colleague, Thomas Seebohm and I had had many discussions about the novel ways in which computer technology could be used to collect information for participatory design.  One particularly lovely idea that we discussed involved mounting a website where interested parties could log in to view renderings of a proposed new development.  Not only could viewers sound off about it, but we might also be able to provide small virtual models of the structures that could be 'flown' through by observers.  We could not only listen to what they said but also watch where they went.  Collecting this kind of data made the psychologist in me a happy man.

There's a nice piece of participatory design going on in my neighbourhood.  In my backyard, in fact.  The picture shows one of my children looking over a small model of a play structure that we've been thinking about for our backyard.  The novel feature of the structure is that it overlaps two adjacent backyards (the greenish fence now separates one yard from the other).   Our neighbourhood is teeming with children who play games that involve multiple yards and multiple routes of access from one to the other.  We encourage this, not only to make outdoor play more attractive but to provide interesting complexes of space for them -- I believe this is a key feature of healthy young development and that it helps children to understand geographic space.  My book has more details about all of this.  In this effort, we are being aided by Ian, our amazing neighbourhood handyman, who is these days carrying such a shine in his eyes that I'm slightly afraid of what he might want to do after the play structure pictured above is complete.  Ian built the model, mocked up some renderings using photoshop, and is poised now to begin to put the whole thing together.  We've spent the past few nights getting input from the children who will use the structure and from the parents who will have to live with the consequences.  Me, I can't wait to see how our kids use this thing and what they teach us about the world.  Stay tuned.