From Sandbox to "Fundbox": Weaving participatory design into the fabric of a busy non-profit

Abstract

This paper documents the experience of doing participatory design in a small non-profit staffed by an empowered workforce. The first eight months of database design and development included close collaboration and an effective division of labor with a member of staff, a collaboratively conducted training workshop, and prototyping in an on-site "sandbox." The sandbox was continually available for each staff member to explore and tinker with, both in one-on-one sessions with me and on their own. In addition to describing several successful cooperative designs, the paper explores ongoing efforts to fit the work of participatory design into the staff's busy schedule. Their time constraints led me occasionally to postpone group planning and decisionmaking, and more generally, to confront the tradeoffs between short-term orientations of participatory design to the needs of particular individuals and longer-term orientations to group design and strategy sessions.