Participatory Design with Children
From running workshops focused on social-emotional learning for immigrant children to working on pro-bono cases for education nonprofits, I have always found working in the education space fulfilling. Growing up in China, my parents were both professors at one point, and I harbored unconditional respect for my teachers in elementary school. When I immigrated to Canada with my mother at the age of 11, I relied on the warmth of my homeroom teacher to feel welcome in the new environment. In college, I had the wonderful fortune of meeting a mentor who empowered me with the self-knowledge to pursue unconventional paths.
For a long time, I attributed my accomplishments to the support of educators I came across. It wasn’t until I started researching child development and learning science that I realized the true heroine in my story was my grandmother. She took care of me during the most tender years of my childhood.
Nobel-winner James Heckman published compelling research on early childhood education, which has a high return on investment (0–5 years old) of 13%. In fact, more than 1 million neuron connections are made per second during this period of exceptional brain elasticity (Harvard Center on the Developing Child). A child’s early childhood experience is mainly shaped by his/her primary caregiver. Most of the time, this role is played by the biological parents but other adults could also take it on. In my case, while my parents often traveled for work, my grandmother served as a stable support system for me and constructed a fertile foundation for my growth later on.
My interest in children was piqued by this realization about the importance of a quality early childhood. I began to design learning tools and experiences for young children.
At the beginning of the process, I interviewed 30+ parents to understand their daily lives and what they enjoyed the most and the least about spending time with their little ones. Based on what I heard from the parents, I began to create prototypes to address the parents’ needs such as getting their children to sleep. Because of their young age, I did not engage the children in the interview process. Meanwhile, I had this existential question lurking in the back of my mind about how do I step into the shoes of a child as an adult?
A turning point for me came when I learned about the popularity of Duck Duck Moose (DDM) games with children. I reached out to the cofounder Caroline Hu Flexer to ask her about their design process. She shared with me that DDM runs user tests and focus groups with children for every game, and the entire team including the engineers watch every session either in person or recording. They observe the children’s reactions carefully, looking for cues of interest and boredom. Young children are genuine users who do not lie to please the adults.
At the same time, I was taking a course with Professor Ray McDermott and Professor Shelley Goldman from whom I learned about the developmental theories of Vygostky and Piaget. Both my professors and the theorists have spent significant time observing and analyzing their recordings of children’s interactions with peers and adults in different learning settings.
I began to realize that without spending time with children, I am designing for children from the ivory tower of adult thinking, instead of designing with them. There is a term in design called participatory design, which has roots in Scandinavian countries in the 1960s when they allowed workers to co-create work processes. The participatory design approach fully respects and values the input from those affected by the change.
Although I am designing for both parents and children, I had previously only engaged in need-finding conversations with the adults because it was easy. Now, I am conducting lengthy user tests with children, with and without my presence to understand their natural inclinations and organic reactions to new products.
My project partner and I have spent many evenings observing the bedtime routines of families who graciously let us into their homes. We have brought in different prototypes to see how children interact with them, where we would sit in a corner and watch them play for hours.
One fascinating learning I gained from my research with children is that they could simultaneously grasp the concept of a man-made product and make-believe there is something magical inside. This incredible ability of childhood is so precious and makes me envious. To gain deeper understanding of how a child’s mind and imagination work, I am digging into child development and learning science books including A Whole Brained Child by Dan Siegel, Imaginary Companions and the Children Who Create Them by Marjorie Taylor, Mindstorms by Seymour Papert, and The ABCs of How We Learn by Daniel Schwartz, Jessica Tsang and Kristen Blair.
This is just the beginning of my journey in designing with children. If I could have a superpower, I would love nothing more to turn back into my 5-year-old self at will. This way, I get to truly see from the mind of a child, which could be very helpful for user testing. But the best part would definitely be all the wild imaginations that flourish in the fertile garden of a child’s mind. For me, delivering joy, and learning in a joyful way, to children is one of the most fulfilling careers I could imagine.
