MAP-it. The Art of Designing a Participatory Mapping Method
Selina Schepers, Katrien Dreessen, Liesbeth Huybrechts, Thomas Laureyssens · Lirias · 2013
Operating within a complex design context, research group Social Spaces (MAD-Faculty, LUCA/KU Leuven) experiences that solving design problems is not straightforward and sometimes requires the design of new methods. Therefore, Social Spaces designed ‘MAP-it’: a participatory mapping method that enables designers to moderate design processes through workshops with diverse participants. This paper shows how we ‘designed’ MAP-it. First, we will show that we conducted several case studies (of which we illustrate one), allowing us to iteratively evaluate the method. Second, we discuss our exploration of PD literature to research how a method can allow people to exchange and disagree. Third, we provide an insight in the three, connected dynamic layers of MAP-it, designed to facilitate participants’ exchanges and disagreements. A first layer entails the way the method allows participants to visualize ideas through a common language. To provide participants with sufficient agency in the process, a second layer involves MAP-it’s low-tech, cut-and-paste character that allows the ‘redesign’ of this language and the ideas expressed with it. Finally, in a third layer, the method facilitates sharing, essential to make the participatory process redesignable and readable for both participants and third parties not involved in the mapping. Finally, we discuss some concluding remarks.