Guido Stompff Hogeschool | Inholland

'Understanding participation fatigue in participatory design approaches'

Last decade, a turn to participatory approaches can be observed within design and design research. Rather than designing for others, such as users or residents, the aim is to design with others. This approach assumes that stakeholders are engaged and willing to participate. However, in the social domain a phenomenon can be observed that is named participation fatigue. Stakeholders believe they are not heard and eventually get weary with participatory trajectories. It is contributed to tokenism, whereby the contribution of participants is merely symbolic. Based on an extensive case study, it was discovered that the participatory design (research) process itself can contribute to weariness among participants. The issues at hand are wicked problems, necessitating exploratory and time-intensive design-led processes that do not align with the expectations participants have when engaging in participatory design research. Paradoxically, striving for participatory approaches in design research runs the risk of creating inflated expectations, which in turn leads to fatigue. To enhance the practice of participatory design research, several recommendations are instilled and (are) tested in practice.

- Research partners: the research is conducted as part of an H2020 research grant, SMARTDEST. Partners are Amsterdam&Partners and the Gemeente Amsterdam.

Biography

Guido Stompff, a professor of Applied Sciences in the research group Creative Business, is specialized in design thinking/doing and advocates for the relevance of design skills for any professional. In his design career, spanning 25 years, he has obtained a Ph.D. in innovation-in-the-wild, with a focus on collective intelligence. His research investigates how groups can create something innovative, when no one possesses oversight. He leads a team that focuses on participatory approaches to innovation, encompassing diverse areas such as tourism and education. He is engaged in networks as Expertisenetwerk Systemisch Codesign (ESC) and the Center of Creative Innovation (CoECI).