MSN
MSN Global Participatory Design, Microsoft - 2004
User-Experience Design Expert, Co-Organizer and
Facilitator
Innovation and Creativity
Through Understanding Values
Goal: to foster innovation and creativity in the Internet
and Mobile spaces by building a body of information based on research with
real customers that can be leveraged by the entire MSN organization.
Process
We invited real customers to take part in a Global Participatory Design initiative, which is a series of research-driven exploratory design sessions.
These sessions are organized and run by key experts in various disciplines, including Anthropology, User-Experience Design, and Product Development.
Sessions occur in different locations around the world with groups of “real” (as opposed to data-driven personas) people who know each other. The initiative currently focuses on families with teens and the older Net Generation (over the age of 20).
Three participatory design sessions have been completed (Seattle, Madrid, and Amsterdam). This Fall we will hold sessions in Tokyo and Seoul.
What is Participatory Design?
Participatory Design has its roots in Scandinavian design processes from the 1960s and 1970s. It has developed in to a diverse collection of principles and practices aimed at making technologies more responsive to human needs. A central tenet of PD is the direct involvement of real people in the co-design of the systems they use.