Children as Designers - Recognising divergent creative modes in Participatory Design
Kay Kender, Christopher Frauenberger, Johanna Pichlbauer, Katharina Werner · 2020
Children and designers have divergent, sometimes contradictory notions of what “design” means. Unrestricted by the lens of adulthood and the shackles of formal creative education, children ask unexpected questions, draw unlikely conclusions, and have a different experience of creation. How do we recognise, address and adapt to these differences of creativity, and how can we successfully draw from them in our design process? In this paper, we describe tensions in participatory design (PD) sessions we have conducted, focusing on the needs and strengths of the children in their role as designers. We inspect the creative experience of diverse children through the creative modes of the Storyteller, the Scientist, the Actor and the Explorer. With these modes, we offer a perspective that enables PD practitioners to facilitate engagements that better support participant’s creative experiences.