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Co-Creating Tools for Touch: applying an inspire-create- play-appropriate methodology for the ideation of therapeutic technologies

ISBN: 978-1-907342-29-5

This paper was awarded “Best Innovation in Inclusive Design” at the Include 2011 conference at the Royal College of Art. It has been cited as an exemplar for participatory action research. Drawing on a Design Lab undertaken with a touch therapy charity, the paper describes the importance of design by doing, a method for driving social innovation by including end users in the design of computer-based tools (Ehn, 1992, p117). The paper was written as a narrative journey through a unique design process, whereby stakeholders take part in activities in their own settings as an enhancement of their everyday routines. The richness of this approach becomes even more vivid as the input of non-verbal, severely autistic young people is documented. The paper makes the case for visceral, palpable and mindful design. For the professional designer this means being alert to experiences as they arise, and resisting the desire to problem solve or make judgements about participant behaviour. The research that underpins Reggio Emilia environments gives the work its philosophical direction, with advancements in affective computing providing the technological argument for the innovations presented within the paper. The iterative methods of inspire, create, play, appropriate, described in the paper, focus on experience prototyping as a collective envisioning tool. The impact of this approach on stakeholder engagement is captured to provide the reader with evidence and tools for putting these methods into practice. The prototypes created during the Design Lab and the video evidence of the event have lead to two new participatory design projects funded by the Rayne Foundation and the SBRI Technology Strategy Board, Higher Education Academy (TechDis) Making Waves Programme. Both these projects have now been adopted worldwide.