Presenting the Outcomes of a Participatory User Workshop

This book explores participatory design methods and presents the process and the outcomes of a related case study, carried out in collaboration with Vestel Electronics, a Turkish consumer electronics manufacturer, on TV remote controls. The book comprises a literature review on participatory design, including its historical background and evolution, the motivations behind its contemporary utilization and the methods, techniques and tools utilized within the approach. The case study comprises two phases. In the first phase, a participatory user workshop was realized with eight middle-aged Turkish housewives. In the second phase, an interactive, computer based design resource was developed by the author, which aims to present the workshop outcomes to designers. The resource was evaluated by the designers of Vestel Electronics and the outcomes are presented in the book. Through such a case study the approach of a Turkish in-house design team towards participatory design methods was reached. Moreover, insights about how such a design resource can be developed were gained through designers' evaluations.