Seventeenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

Children are often seen but not heard in the design process. How can you look at them more as co-creators than consumers of your product or service? This study helps you to understand working with a child-centered design mindset in an organizational or academic setting. As a designer for children’s rights, Saloni explains her own framework as she learned and unlearnt listening to children’s voices and designing with them. Initially while researching, she included everyone around the ecosystem of the child but not the child. There are varied reasons for excluding children as users due to existing power gaps, biases, pre-made assumptions, etc. In my study: 1. I explain the importance of child-centered research inspired by participatory design research methods. 2. Briefly throw light on incorporating principles created by Designing for Children Rights” (a non-profit organization based in the EU). Being a community member, I’ve used it in my master’s thesis and work. I’ll be explaining through successful case studies 3. I shae our insights and challenges in including children as users. In my company, we conducted co-creation workshops with children and their families, started a child consultancy program, and do 2-3 user interviews every week with families. 4. Lastly, I illustrate how to incorporated playful inquiry when working with children as users. There is a dire need to move beyond sticky notes while working with children and also adults.