Content prototyping - An approach for engaging non-technical users in participatory design

Abstract

Many in the developing world have little to no experience with computers - they have never used software as part of their daily lives and jobs, so there is always a challenge for how this class of users can be engaged in Participatory Design in a manner that the value of their participation is not limited by their computing experience. This paper looks at previous work that addressed this challenge, and introduces an approach called content prototyping, which is an adaptation of existing practices to fit the needs of non-technical users. We also discuss the lessons learned from using this approach, and give recommendations for related projects in the developing world. © 2013 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.