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Fun as a user gain in participatory design processes involving children: A case study

Book Contribution - Book Chapter Conference Contribution

© 2018 Association for Computing Machinery. Although seemingly evident, 'fun' in Participatory Design (PD) processes involving children generally remains implicit. In this paper, we explore fun as a user gain since the benefits that children gain from PD are relatively unexplored. We reflect on 'Making Things!', a case study involving children in the design of FabLab workshops for the future. Our findings show that the child-participants gain from the process through fun in overcoming challenges, working towards finalised objects, experimenting, and interacting with others. Based on our findings, we posit that fun can be a direct gain of children participating in PD, but also relates to additional user gains (e.g. developing self-esteem). Furthermore, we hypothesise that opening up the assessment of children's user gains would fit the notion of the child as process designer. These findings extend the debate on benefits children can gain through PD and highlight the importance of fun as a user gain.
Book: IDC 2018 - Proceedings of the 2018 ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children
Pages: 396 - 404
ISBN:9781450351522
Publication year:2018
BOF-keylabel:yes
IOF-keylabel:yes
Authors from:Higher Education
Accessibility:Closed