M Bates

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

This paper forms 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 relates 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 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.

Formulating a Serious-Games Design Project for Adult Offenders with the Probation Service

This paper documents an investigation evaluating if adult offenders can benefit from a facilitated seriousgames design project as part of their probation program. Research has observed a participatory design group of adult offenders working with their probation managers and a PhD researcher to create a new serious-game for use by the probation service. A voluntary participant group of six male offenders was observed over a five week design process using the game authoring software Game-Maker. Weekly meetings have allowed participants to learn basic game authoring skills and share design ideas within a multi-disciplinary team. Investigators have observed the amount and type of assistance required by participants when interacting with new software, the range and suitability of ideas communicated by participants, and the ability of participants to convert their ideas into functional media. This paper presents qualitative results from this exploratory field study and compares the results to previous investigations with secondary school children.

Workshop on participatory design and the humanist landscape

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 context 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. This set of three talks reflects 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. The aims of the workshop are to: situate Participatory Design practice in the context of humanistic psychotherapy research, and discuss implications for design research methodologies; introduce phenomenological attitudes and tools for reflection on team working and relational aspects of Participatory Design; and contribute to the development of a person-centred framework for Participatory Design research.