Participatory Design

Participatory design is the practice of including stakeholders — especially users and affected communities — in the design process as co-creators rather than research subjects. It rejects the designer-as-expert model in favor of mutual learning, where technical expertise and lived experience are treated as equally necessary inputs. The tradition emerged from Scandinavian labor politics in the 1970s and has since expanded to community development, healthcare, and technology design. It is distinct from adversarial design in that it seeks collaboration rather than conflict, though both share a suspicion of top-down optimization. See also co-design, which emphasizes equality between designers and participants.