Conference Agenda

Designers aim to craft creative solutions where "usefulness" plays a crucial role, necessitating knowledge across domains and consideration of diverse user needs. Given the complexity, participatory methods are often used to include various users in the creation process. However, designers face challenges in recognizing and prioritizing these needs due to users being reserved or unclear in communicating their needs and feedback during the design stages.

To involve users more effectively in co-creation, designers need to create a conducive atmosphere for communication and ask the right questions to elicit valuable responses. This workshop tests a toolkit designed to assist in empathizing with users and analyzing their needs, exploring effective questioning for co-creation.

The workshop will involve groups of five each tackling a design problem through co-creation. It includes a brief introduction to the process and toolkit, role-playing and empathy mapping, a break, needs identification and prioritization, group presentations, and a feedback and discussion session.

Expected outcomes are the preliminary testing of the toolkit, enhancing understanding and empathy among participants for various users, and identifying effective questions to bridge communication gaps. This may also highlight potential areas for future research.