A long-term strategy for designing (in) the wild
Joanna Saad-Sulonen, Andrea Botero, Kari Kuutti · 2012
This paper addresses the move towards understanding an expanded domain of design for interactive systems. We take up Dourish's invitation to "designing politics", and examine, through the long-term study of the design of the Urban Mediator and its outcomes, how and to what extend the design of an interactive system can impact citizen participation in urban planning. The study shows that with the adoption of an expanded approach to the participatory design of technology, it is possible to impact the processes in place for citizen participation, albeit naturally in a modest way. Issues of different timeframes and rhythms in technological development and the practices and politics of citizen participation need to be addressed, as well as new strategic considerations, which go beyond the traditional role of design.