PDC

PARTICIPATORY DESIGNParticipatory design (PD) is a diverse collection of principles and practices aimed at making technologies and social institutions more responsive to human needs. A central tenet of PD is the direct involvement of people in the co-design of the systems they use. This tenet is based on the recognition that when people are involved in shaping their social, technological and material environments, the better suited these environments are to everyday realities and requirements and the more people able are to claim authority over their work and leisure lives.The PD Conferences have been held every two years since 1990. The conference brings together a multidisciplinary and international group of researchers, software developers, social scientists, designers, activists, practitioners, users, citizens, cultural workers and managers who adopt distinctively participatory approaches in the design of artefacts, systems, services, environments and technologies.The theme of PDC 2006 is Expanding Boundaries in Design. Our focus is on the multiple contexts in which design takes place and on an expanding range of possible design outcomes. While participatory design principles and practices are most often applied to the design of technical systems and artefacts, increasingly there is both the need and the opportunity to focus PD approaches on other domains, such as physical environments, organizational practices, and IT-enabled services. Likewise, the contexts in which PD is practiced has grown to include teams of globally distributed designers and practitioners; actor networks that span organizational, expertise, cultural and linguistic difference; and activity areas beyond the workplace, such as domestic and leisure. Finally, PD has a significant role to play at various stages of design, from initial concept development, to system configuration, to implementation, to integration within the context of use, and ultimately to ongoing design in use. This year's theme recognizes that we have an opportunity to expand our community, our design focus and the sites for action by bringing the principles of informed participation and social good to an even wider audience.RESEARCH PAPERSThe Research Papers presented at PDC 2006 make contributions to the theory and practice of participatory design and demonstrate the varied contexts in which participatory design is applicable. Included in the conference proceedings are papers that explore the role of process in structuring participatory practices, how embodiment shapes participatory practices and informs the designed artefacts, the place of games in guiding design, the critical perspectives participants provide in PD projects, and how the location of participants, agendas and designers affects PD outcomes. During the conference the Research Papers are presented in five sessions and are reproduced in Volume I of the proceedings in the order of their presentation at the conference.OTHER CONFERENCE CONTRIBUTIONSVolume II of the proceedings contains the other contributions to the conference, including abstracts of the Keynote presentations; Exploratory Papers; and descriptions of the Interactive Workshops, Panels and Art Installations.The PDC 2006 Keynote presentations are by Patrizia Marti and Klaus Krippendorf. Patrizia Marti is a professor at the Communication Science Department, University of Siena, Italy. Her research in participatory design has ranged across a number of areas, including education, health care, museums, and air traffic management. The topic of her keynote address is on the evolution of the concept of participation in design. Klaus Krippendorf is a professor of Communication at the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania. He was originally trained as an industrial designer at the Ulm School of Design in Germany and then went on to receive a PhD in Communications. The topic of his keynote address is on semantics and dialogue in participatory design.The Exploratory Paper track provides a forum for the authors of exploratory papers to engage the PD community in discussions about works in progress, practitioners' practical experiences, the challenges of working across cultural and expertise boundaries, and the emergence of innovative tools and techniques. The Interactive Workshops focus on a range of topics and are designed to advance participants understanding and expertise in PD methods, practices and theoretical perspectives. The Doctoral consortium provides PhD students working within the field of Participatory Design an opportunity to present topics of concern to them in their doctoral studies and receive feedback from the session co-chairs and student participants. The Art Installation track is dedicated to strengthening the PD community's collaborations with artists and designers engaged in creative practices that support new roles for visitors/viewers as active spectators and co-authors. The main event of the Art Installation track is ParticipART, an exhibition of participative and electronic art at the MART (Museum of Modern Art of Trento and Rovereto, Italy). Artists, designers and performers exhibit their work at the ParticipART event in a setting where PDC 2006 attendees are able to engage with the art and the artists.ARTFUL INTEGRATOR AWARDThe Artful Integrator Award is awarded for the second time during PDC 2006. The Award is intended to recognize outstanding achievement in the area of participatory design of information and communications technologies. Where traditional design awards have gone to individual designers and/or singular objects, the Artful Integrators' Award emphasizes the importance of collaborative participation in design, and a view of good design as the effective alignment of diverse collections of people, practices and artefacts. The award goes to a group of people who together have worked out, in an exceptionally creative way, a new and useful configuration of artefacts and practices. While no single element of the design might be particularly extraordinary in itself, the combination of design process and outcome are.