In the last decades, the perspective on the voice of children had an international development and its been at the centre of political and cultural attention of many cities. Several programs and initiatives have been introduced aiming to promote children’s active involvement in issues that affect them. What emerged is the need to considered the children as experts of their own experiences, therefore it is a necessity to listen to their voices and take them into consideration during decision-making processes. Municipalities and city councils, try to raise the role of children in projects that are related to them, through the use of participatory activities and techniques. Most of the time children’s involvement takes the form of consultation, in order to facilitate a decision on a predefined solution. However this method gives limited opportunity for children to propose their own ideas and creations. For children to actually be considered active citizens, they need to have the possibility to contribute in every aspect of a project in a meaningful way. The design thinking approach offers a set of tools and methodologies that can be used in the design process to involve children and produce useful and beneficial outcomes. The participatory approach has been developed in industrial design and architecture to give the user a voice within the design process. Nowadays, with the need to redesign services, solutions are now built around people and with people in a collaborative way. The co-design process involves different stakeholders and users that often use a different “language” to communicate. In order to improve the interaction and make the communication better, tools and techniques have been developed by designers and researchers. Existing literature has demonstrated that children can be active co-designers, especially when involved in “thinking with their hands”, where they proved they could create and develop innovative insights and tangible solutions. Much experience has been gained within the Interaction Design Community, techniques and methodologies have been experimented, with the purpose to investigate useful methods that involve children in the design of interactive technologies. When children are involved as designers, the tools need to suit their capabilities and be a stimuli for defining meaningful experiences. The tools should be able to help produce positive and useful design outcomes. The aim of this thesis is to support this process by producing a combination of tools conceived to guide children in the design of services. TOOLkid is the final outcome, a collection of tools to run design activities and workshops. TOOLkid is a guide for facilitators (educators, professional designers, teachers or parents) who want to involve children in co-design activities or service design workshops. The toolkit contains tools that should be adapted appropriately to fit particular topics or groups of children. The guide also proposes an innovative learning process that directs children through the phases of: research, problem finding, defining opportunities, problem solving and the generation of tangible ideas. Throughout its entirety it is easy to use and uses an understandable logic for the children and the facilitators.
Negli ultimi decenni, a partire dagli anni novanta, in Italia e nel mondo, la partecipazione dei più piccoli è stata al centro dell’attenzione politica e sociale delle città. Diversi programmi e iniziative di sensibilizzazione volti a promuovere il coinvolgimento attivo dei bambini hanno preso il via in tutta Italia. L’esigenza emersa e’ quella di considerare i bambini come esperti delle proprie esperienze di vita quotidiana, ascoltando le loro opinioni e prendendole in considerazione, in particolare durante i processi decisionali a loro rivolti. Comuni e consigli comunali si sono impegnati nel coinvolgere maggiormente il bambino attraverso diverse attività e tecniche partecipative. Nonostante l’intento positivo da parte dei sindaci, la forma partecipativa di “consultazione” di soluzioni già predefinita è fino ad oggi prevalsa. Questo metodo e’ però limitante in quanto non permette di proporre a pieno nuove idee. Al fine di considerare i bambini come cittadini attivi, deve essere data loro la possibilità di contribuire in ogni aspetto del progetto in modo significativo. L'approccio del design thinking propone metodi e strumenti che possono essere utilizzati durante le attività di progettazione per coinvolgere il bambino e generare risultati interessanti e innovativi. L'approccio partecipativo si è sviluppato nei campi del disegno industriale e dell’architettura con l’obiettivo di dare all’utente finale la possibilità di esprimersi all'interno del processo di progettazione . Oggi, con la necessità di riprogettare servizi per le persone, le soluzioni vengono ideate per e con le persone in modo collaborativo. Il processo di co-design coinvolge diversi utenti e stakeholders che utilizzano linguaggi diversi di comunicazione: al fine di migliorare l’interazione e la comunicazione tra le parti, designer e researcher hanno sviluppato e progettato strumenti e metodi ad hoc. La letteratura esistente ha dimostrato che i bambini possono essere co-designer attivi, soprattutto quando coinvolti in attività di "pensare con le mani" dove hanno dimostrato di avere le capacita’ per creare e sviluppare idee innovative e soluzioni concrete. L’Interaction Design Community ha indagato a lungo tecniche e metodi per coinvolgere i più piccoli nella progettazione di tecnologie interattive. Al fine di creare esperienze significative per i bambini che partecipano alle attività di progettazione in qualità di designer, le tecniche e gli strumenti utilizzati devono rispecchiare le loro capacita’ ed essere di stimolo senza rappresentare un ostacolo. Gli strumenti devono facilitare il bambino nella generazione di soluzioni e idee innovative. Lo scopo finale di questa tesi è la progettazione di design tools che possano essere di supporto ai bambini nelle fasi progettazione di servizi a loro rivolti. TOOLkid è il progetto finale, un set di strumenti per svolgere attività di progettazione e laboratori. TOOLkid è una guida per facilitatori ( educatori, designer professionisti, insegnanti o genitori) che vogliono coinvolgere i bambini in attività di co-design o laboratori di progettazione di servizi. Il toolkit contiene strumenti che possono essere adattati per soddisfare particolari argomenti o gruppi di partecipanti. TOOLkid si propone come un innovativo processo di apprendimento che guida i bambini attraverso le fasi di: ricerca, identificazione del problema, definizione opportunità, problem solving e generazione di idee tangibili. TOOLKid e’ di facile utilizzo ed implementa una logica comprensibile per bambini e facilitatori.
Toolkid. A tool for co-designing services with children
SANGIORGIO, JESSICA
2013/2014
Abstract
In the last decades, the perspective on the voice of children had an international development and its been at the centre of political and cultural attention of many cities. Several programs and initiatives have been introduced aiming to promote children’s active involvement in issues that affect them. What emerged is the need to considered the children as experts of their own experiences, therefore it is a necessity to listen to their voices and take them into consideration during decision-making processes. Municipalities and city councils, try to raise the role of children in projects that are related to them, through the use of participatory activities and techniques. Most of the time children’s involvement takes the form of consultation, in order to facilitate a decision on a predefined solution. However this method gives limited opportunity for children to propose their own ideas and creations. For children to actually be considered active citizens, they need to have the possibility to contribute in every aspect of a project in a meaningful way. The design thinking approach offers a set of tools and methodologies that can be used in the design process to involve children and produce useful and beneficial outcomes. The participatory approach has been developed in industrial design and architecture to give the user a voice within the design process. Nowadays, with the need to redesign services, solutions are now built around people and with people in a collaborative way. The co-design process involves different stakeholders and users that often use a different “language” to communicate. In order to improve the interaction and make the communication better, tools and techniques have been developed by designers and researchers. Existing literature has demonstrated that children can be active co-designers, especially when involved in “thinking with their hands”, where they proved they could create and develop innovative insights and tangible solutions. Much experience has been gained within the Interaction Design Community, techniques and methodologies have been experimented, with the purpose to investigate useful methods that involve children in the design of interactive technologies. When children are involved as designers, the tools need to suit their capabilities and be a stimuli for defining meaningful experiences. The tools should be able to help produce positive and useful design outcomes. The aim of this thesis is to support this process by producing a combination of tools conceived to guide children in the design of services. TOOLkid is the final outcome, a collection of tools to run design activities and workshops. TOOLkid is a guide for facilitators (educators, professional designers, teachers or parents) who want to involve children in co-design activities or service design workshops. The toolkit contains tools that should be adapted appropriately to fit particular topics or groups of children. The guide also proposes an innovative learning process that directs children through the phases of: research, problem finding, defining opportunities, problem solving and the generation of tangible ideas. Throughout its entirety it is easy to use and uses an understandable logic for the children and the facilitators.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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2015_04_Sangiorgio.pdf
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Descrizione: Thesis text
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/105281