Participative Design A paradigm shift.

2. Participative DesignA paradigm shift. By; Engr.Dr.Attaullah Shah PhD ( Civil) Engg , MScEngg ( Strs), BScEngg ( Gold Medalist),), MBA, MA ( Eco) MScEnvir Design, PGD Computer Sc. Tel: 051-9250100 E-mail: pdaiou@yahoo.com.

3. Definition and History • In participatory design participants (putative, potential or future) are invited to cooperate with designers, researchers and developers during an innovation process • Potentially, they participate during several stages of an innovation process • Participatory design was actually born in Scandinavia and named Cooperative Design • In US the term participative design was used. • In Scandinavia, research projects on user participation in systems development date back to the 1970s (Bødker 1996). The so-called "collective resource approach" developed strategies and techniques for workers to influence the design and use of computer applications at the workplace

4. Participatory design in built environment. • Participatory design has many applications in development and changes to the built environment. • It has particular currency to planners and architects, in relation to place making and community regeneration projects. • It potentially offers a far more democratic approach to the design process as it involves more than one stakeholder. • The City of Melbourne Swanton Street redevelopment project received over 5000 responses from the public allowing them to participate in the design process by commenting on seven different design options • Portland, Oregon city repair project is a form of participatory design, which involves the community co-designing problem areas together to make positive changes to their environment

5. Why involve users at all? • Expectation management • Realistic expectations • No surprises, no disappointments • Timely training • Communication, but no hype • Ownership • Make the users active stakeholders • More likely to forgive or accept problems • Can make a big difference to acceptance and success of product

6. Degrees of user involvement • Member of the design team • Full time: constant input, but lose touch with users • Part time: patchy input, and very stressful • Short term: inconsistent across project life • Long term: consistent, but lose touch with users • Newsletters and other dissemination devices • Reach wider selection of users • Need communication both ways • Combination of these approaches

7. What is a user-centered approach? User-centered approach is based on: • Early focus on users and tasks: directly studying cognitive, behavioural, anthropomorphic & attitudinal characteristics • Empirical measurement: users’ reactions and performance to scenarios, manuals, simulations & prototypes are observed, recorded and analysed • Iterative design: when problems are found in user testing, fix them and carry out more tests

8. Understanding users’ work • Understanding users’ work is significant • Ethnography: from anthropology • ‘writing the culture’ • participant observation • Difficult to use the output of ethnography in design

9. Framework for using ethnography in design • Distributed co-ordination: distributed nature of the tasks & activities, and the means and mechanisms by which they are co-ordinated • Plans and procedures: organisational support for the work, such as workflow models and organisational charts, and how these are used to support the work • Awareness of work: how people keep themselves aware of others’ work

10. Coherence • A method which offers appropriate questions to help address these key dimensions • For example: • Distributed Coordination: How is the division of labour manifest through the work of individuals and its co-ordination with others? • Plans and procedures: How do plans and procedures function in the workplace?

11. Contextual Design • Developed to handle data collection and analysis from fieldwork for developing a software-based product • Used quite widely commercially • Contextual Design has seven parts: • Contextual inquiry, Work modelling, • Consolidation, Work redesign, • User environment design, • Mock-up and test with customers, • Putting it into Practice

12. Contextual Inquiry • An approach to ethnographic study where user is expert, designer is apprentice • A form of interview, but • at users’ workplace (workstation) • 2 to 3 hours long • Four main principles: • Context: see workplace & what happens • Partnership: user and developer collaborate • Interpretation: observations interpreted by user and developer together • Focus: project focus to help understand what to look for

13. Work Modeling • In interpretation session, models are drawn from the observations: • Work flow model: the people, communication and co-ordination • Sequence model: detailed work steps to achieve a goal • Artifact model: the physical ‘things’ created to do the work • Cultural model: constraints on the system from organizational culture • Physical model: physical structure of the work, e.g. office layout

14. Consolidation • Each contextual inquiry (one for each user/developer pair) results in a set of models • These need to be consolidated into one view of ‘the work’ • Affinity diagram • Organizes interpretation session notes into common structures and themes • Categories arise from the data • Diagram is built through induction • Work models consolidated into one of each type

15. Participatory Design • Scandinavian history • Emphasises social and organisational aspects • Based on study, model-building and analysis of new and potential future systems • Aspects to user involvement include • Who will represent the user community?Interaction may need to be assisted by a facilitator • Shared representations • Co-design using simple tools such as paper or video scenarios • Designers and users communicate about proposed designs • Cooperative evaluation such as assessment of prototypes

16. Benefits of Participatory Design “Computer-based systems that are poorly suited to how people actually work impose cost not only on the organisation in terms of low productivity but also on the people who work with them. Studies of work in computer-intensive workplaces have pointed to a host of serious problems that can be caused by job design that is insensitive to the nature of the work being performed, or to the needs of human beings in an automated workplace.” [Kuhn, S. in Bringing Design to Software, 1996]

17. clear and continuous communication • rigorous attention to detail • active collaboration among all team members throughout all phases of the project

18. The Generic Evaluation process. • Giving opportunity to different groups of stakeholders • Who takes part in an evaluation: • Participant groups (5-10 groups per facility/ 3 to 7 per interest group). • Providers ( Supply side) • Users ( demand side) • Facilitators: ( 2 to 3 people on each from provider, user and a researcher.) • Managers to Authorize evaluation ( 1 to 2 people one each from provider and user)

19. Evaluation process Cont’d • Three steps involved. • Introductory meetings • Touring review • Review meeting • Introductory meetings • Facilitators meet with the participant group and explain the process • Touring interview: • Walk through the building • Open ended questionnaire • Topics raised by the users are noted • Review Meeting s: • Outcomes of the evaluation formulated and agreed on • Topics raised are discussed • Recommendations are made.

20. Uses of generic evaluation process. • Fixing: • Fine tuning of trouble shooting • Focused study by specialist • Selecting: • Assisting in selection of accommodation • Programming: • As an aid to design of new and refurbished facility • Developing knowledge: • Gathering information to form corporate knowledge.

21. Post Occupancy Evaluation ( POE) • Post Occupancy Evaluation involves systematic evaluation of opinion about buildings in use, from the perspective of the people who use them. • It assesses how well buildings match users' needs, and identifies ways to improve building design, performance and fitness for purpose. • POE is a way of providing feedback throughout a building’s lifecycle from initial concept through to occupation. • The information from feedback can be used for informing future projects, whether it is on the process of delivery or technical performance of the building. It serves several purposes:

22. Benefits of POE • Short term benefits of POE • Identification of and finding solutions to problems in buildings; • Response to user needs; • Improve space utilization based on feedback from use; • Understanding of implications on buildings of change whether it is budget cuts or working context; • Informed decision making • Medium term benefits of POE • Built-in capacity for building adaptation to organizational change and growth; • Finding new uses for buildings; • Accountability for building performance by designers

23. Longer term benefits of POE • Long-term improvements in building performance; • Improvement in design quality; • Strategic review

24. Step 1: Identify POE strategy • What: Identify the need for the evaluation and probable aspects of the evaluation • Step 2: Decide which approach • Identify what issues the evaluation must address and whether it will be carried out internally or by external consultant • Step 3: Brief for the POE • Succinct statement setting out the purpose of the POE and how it is to be achieved

25. Step 4: Plan the POE • Select approaches that will meet your needs • Step 5: Carry out POE • Distribute and collect survey questionnaires, carry out interviews, meetings and observations • Step 6: Prepare the report • Feedback of findings • Step 7: Action in response to POE • Feed information into policies. Feed information into next project

26. Who needs to be involved and key issues to consider for University buildings:

27. The areas covered in a Process evaluation

28. The areas covered in a Functional and Technical Performance evaluation

29. Data Collection Tools for Evaluation • Walk through and observation • This can use both observation, reflecting on how space is performing, and informal discussions with users to identify conflicts. • Advantages • Few staff resources needed • Can be done without any end user involvement or inconvenience • Can provide quantitative data if designed appropriately • Enables unbiased view • Disadvantages • Methodology may demand rigorous application e.g. observations at particular times of the day • Comparison can be difficult unless observer is given a methodology to apply

30. Interviews • Interviews with individuals are a useful way of getting very specific, detailed information and developing • A deeper understanding of particular problems. They are best facilitated by a professional who is able to be objective. • Whilst there needs to be a focus to an interview they are often most useful when conducted with a loose agenda, allowing free discussion to pick up issues that may not be initially obvious. • Advantages • Detailed exploration of issues • Fine grain of detail and insights can be generated • Target very specific knowledge • Easier to arrange meetings with individuals than groups

31. Disadvantages • Specific opinions do not necessarily represent broad views • Biased response likely • Cannot benchmark • No anonymity

32. Focus groups • Focus groups are a good way of drawing out information on a range of topics. Often they are a useful adjunct to a questionnaire survey where the responses to that have identified key problem areas but you need to get more qualitative information on them to understand the problem. • Advantages • Management time needed to prepare is less than for questionnaire survey • Involves relatively in few people • Enables specific issues to be addressed in detail • Interactions between attendees enables deeper insights • Flexibility of coverage, agenda can allow issues to be explored as they are uncovered • Useful for teasing out broad issues uncovered by questionnaire survey

33. Disadvantages • Expert facilitation needed • Qualitative data lacks statistical rigor of survey questionnaire • Bias of those who attend – therefore selection of attendees critical • No anonymity – people may be reticent to say what they think

34. Workshops • A workshop is useful for defining and exploring problems rather than merely discussing what those problems are. • In a Post Occupancy Evaluation workshops can be a useful way to explore possible solutions to problems by using group experience. A disadvantage is that they can be time consuming. • A workshop should last at least half a day and have a broad agenda which identifies the focus of each session. • Identify a range of staff to bring in different types of experience • Break down the main topic into sub-topics allowing about an hour for each

35. With the group define specific questions that need to be addressed and get the group to define answers • Record the groups responses so that everyone can see – flip charts/white boards are useful for this • Allow time to summarize • Where there are say more than eight people in the workshop consider breaking it down into sub groups which are easier to manage and ensure that everyone takes part. These subgroups can be given different issues or questions to address • Prepare and circulate the workshop report to all participants

36. Questionnaires • Questionnaires are a valuable way of collecting data from a large group of people. • It is important to consider whether a standard or tailored questionnaire is required. • Standard questionnaires offer the advantage of being able to gather consistent data across your facilities. The benefit of this is that you can benchmark buildings, or parts of buildings against each other. • A standard questionnaire that is available from expert consultancies enable benchmarking a building project against others in the sector. • Tailored questionnaires enable examination of issues specific to the building or institution. However, it is possible to combine the two approaches and use a standard questionnaire with a section that is specific to your circumstances.

37. Advantages • Generates detailed quantitative data from end users • Allows performance benchmarking • Problems can be geographically pinpointed (i.e. where in building respondent works) • Obtains a broad based opinion • Anonymity can be given • Enables comparative surveys to identify trends and responses to remedial action • Disadvantages • Requires skilled design • Requires careful administration to ensure response • Requires staff time to complete • Requires skills to analyze and interpret responses

38. Measurement and physical monitoring • e.g. light levels, noise levels, air and radiant temperatures, CO2 levels, air flow rates • Needs a level of acceptable environment to be defined for comparative purposes • Needs a clear strategy to determine measurements points, frequencies and duration of monitoring • Can be combined with energy monitoring to assess overall building energy efficiency • Advantages: Quantitative objective data • Problems can be geographically pinpointed (i.e. where respondent works) • Problems can be pinpointed in time (eg season, time of day)

39. Disadvantages: • Expertise needed to take measurements and interpret results • Appointment of external consultants may be needed • Hiring of appropriate equipment, Measurements may need to be taken over a significant period of time, therefore quick, meaningful results may be harder to obtain, • Measuring equipment will be left in place – possibility of disruption and inconvenience

40. BENCHMARKING • Benchmarking is used to compare buildings or space performance against recognized leading edge examples. • It can also be used to compare buildings within an institution’s own portfolio. • Benchmarking is a continuous systematic process of measuring relative performance against relevant comparators. • Be aware that benchmark data can be distorted by situations that are unique to a particular organization. • For example high levels of pollution in the atmosphere may mean windows have to be cleaned more often, or the organization may have high occupancy.

41. Types of criteria that are often used for benchmarking: • Space use: • Occupancy ration/floor area • Space utilization (what space is used for and for how long) • Costs: • Whole life cost • Construction project cost • Operating costs • Environmental: • Energy • CO2 emissions • Water use

42. Case Study: POE • Retail Bank Design Project : New Zealand • In the early 1990s, the Bank of New Zealand embarked on a major project to redesign 100 branches throughout New Zealand, at a cost of $165 million. • The aim was to create a new retail banking environment which supported the bank's customer-focused sales and service culture. • Post Occupancy Evaluations of some 25 branches between 1993 and 1996 was done. The aim was to assess whether the Retail Design Project "provided the best environment from a customer and personnel perspective. It needed to be both practicable and work hard to achieve strategic outcomes."

43. Client Comment • "The Post Occupancy Evaluation process was essential for our assessment of the Retail Design Project ... (It) is a rigorous process which from a customer service and operations context provides valuable feedback. Post Occupancy Evaluation was ideal for our purposes because it measured quality of the physical environment.“ • The new retail concept effectively redefined consumer and business banking in New Zealand: the Post Occupancy Evaluations identified what customers and staff thought of the new environment.

44. De Montfort method, Report accessible from www.architecture.com • Blyth, A and Worthington J, Managing the brief for better design, Spon Press, 2001 • Cohen, R., Standeven, M., Bordass, W, and Leaman, A., PROBE Strategic Review, 199 • Jaunzens, D., Hadi, M., and Graves, H., Encouraging Post Occupancy Evaluation, CRISP, 2001 • Jaunzens, D., Cohen, R., Watson, M., and Picton., Post Occupancy Evaluation – a simple method for the early stages of occupancy, CIBSE, 2002 • Design with distinction: The value of good building design in higher education, CABE, 2005 • Creating Excellent Buildings – a guide for clients, CABE, 2003 • Preiser.W, Vischer J, Assessing building performance, Elsevier, 2005 • BS 7832: 1995 (ISO 9699:1994) “Performance standards in building – Checklist for briefing – Contents of brief for building design” • Useful websites Organisations,www.hefce.ac.uk,www.heestates.ac.uk • www.sfc.ac.uk,www.aude.ac.uk,www.cibse.org,www.constructingexcellence.org.uk,POE methodologies,De Montfort method: www.architecture.com • Overall Liking Score: www.absconsulting.uk.com,Usable Building Trust for PROBE, Building Use Studies Occupancy surveys, Soft Landings approach: • www.usablebuildings.co.uk,Design Quality Indicators: www.dqi.org.uk