Participatory Design in
Large-Scale Public Projects:
Challenges and Opportunities
Peter Dalsgaard
Introduction
In the years since methods for involving potential end-users as co-
designers in systems development were first introduced in the
1970s and 1980s, Participatory Design has grown to become an
established field of practice and research. Participatory methods
and techniques currently are employed in a range of projects,
spanning from software development to urban planning. How-
ever, Participatory Design approaches have primarily been used in
projects that concern the development of individual systems, ser-
vices, or products. In A Retrospective Look at PD Projects, Clement
and van den Besselaar find that, with few exceptions, early Partici-
patory Design projects “. .were general y smal -scale and isolated
from other levels of the host and sponsoring organization.”1 These
findings are echoed by Simonsen and Hertzum: “[. .] a review of
the PD literature reveals that most PD experiments have been
restricted to smal -scale systems (often driven by researchers) or to
the initial parts of larger scale information systems development
fol owed by a conventional contractual bid.”2 In light of this situa-
tion, Shapiro poses the chal enge that “Participatory Design as a
community of practitioners should seriously consider claiming an
engagement in the development of large-scale systems, and more
particularly an engagement with the procurement and develop-
1 Andrew Clement and Peter van den
Besselaar, “A Retrospective Look
ment of systems in the public sector.”3
at Participatory Design Projects,”
In this paper, I examine a specific large-scale public proj-
Communications of the ACM 36,
ect—the development of a new municipal library titled Media-
no. 4, (1993): 32.
space—from a Participatory Design perspective. My aim is to
2 Jesper Simonsen and Morten Hertzum,
outline central chal enges and opportunities for participation in
“Sustained Participatory Design:
Extending the Iterative Approach,”
large-scale public projects. In doing so, I address the role that par-
Design Issues 28, no. 2 (Spring
ticipation can play in such projects and how insights and
2012): 11.
approaches from Participatory Design can be appropriated for
3 Dan Shapiro, “Participatory Design:
them. The scale and scope of the Mediaspace project extends
The Will to Succeed,” In Proceedings
beyond many traditional studies of Participatory Design projects
of the 4th Decennial Conference on
in that it deals not with the development of a single technological
Critical Computing: Between Sense
and Sensibility (CC ‘05), Olav W.
system, but with the transformation of a large public institution.
Bertelsen, Niels Olof Bouvin, Peter G.
This transformation has a dual nature: It concerns the development
Krogh, and Morten Kyng, eds., (New
York, NY: ACM), 32.
© 2012 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
34
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
of a new building to house a library, but it also deals with the
transformation that the library as a socio-cultural institution
undergoes. These developments are intertwined in the sense that
the new building that houses the library must necessarily reflect
the ways in which the library as an institution is chal enged and
transformed by the emergence of new digital technologies that
supplement or supplant the existing media the library original y
was developed to house.
The chal enges that this particular library faces resonates
with the chal enges of other libraries, as wel as with those of other
public knowledge institutions, such as museums and science cen-
ters in general. These institutions historical y have held a privi-
leged position as repositories for and disseminators of
information; however, new digital technologies provide access to
this type of information and chal enge the roles and positions of
these institutions in society.4 For this reason, many public knowl-
edge institutions are thrust into an identity crisis, as well as an
arguably more tangible crisis of retaining and attracting visitors
and funding. These changes have prompted institutions to con-
sider how to integrate emerging digital technologies into their ser-
vices, as well as to examine and articulate the roles that these
institutions themselves play in society—in addition to being repos-
itories of physical media and artifacts.5 For many institutions, the
case is that they play important roles in the public sphere not only
due to the materials they house and curate, but because they have
also become bearers of culture and places of public engagement
and participation.
In my examination of the Mediaspace project, I focus on the
chal enges that a project of this type entail, as well as the design
opportunities that it offers. Design practitioners and researchers
who use and explore participatory approaches are likely to find
the case relevant for the fol owing reasons:
• It addresses the complex process of involving citizens and
stakeholders in the co-design of a public institution and, by
association , in the exploration of how new technologies
affect the role and services of the institution.
4 Nancy Courtney, Library 2.0 and Beyond:
Innovative Technologies and Tomorrow’s
• It addresses the ways in which both methods and values
User. Portal Libraries and the Academy.
of Participatory Design can play a role in large-scale
8. (Libraries Unlimited). www.loc.gov/
public projects.
catdir/toc/ecip0713/2007009007.html
• It addresses the ways in which new technologies can
(accessed March 8, 2012).
be designed and employed to inspire and scaffold
5 See Eilean Hooper-Greenhill:
participation in the design process.
Communication and Communities in
the Post-museum – From Metanarratives
• On a more overarching level, it addresses the reciprocal
to Constructed Knowledge (Leicester:
transformation processes that technologies and institutions
University of Leicester 2001). Online
undergo, in the sense that an institution like the
papers: www.le.ac.uk/ms/study/paper3.
library is chal enged by the emergence of new digital
pdf (accessed March 8, 2012).
technologies but can at the same time play a role in the
P. Vergo, The New Museology (London:
Reaktion Books, 1997).
shaping of such technologies.
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
35
Figure 1
Rendering of the Future Mediaspace
Building, Aarhus, Denmark
(http://www.multimediehuset.dk).
The Mediaspace Project
Mediaspace is a large-scale project to develop a shared building for
the municipal library and Citizens’ Service department in Aarhus,
Denmark. The project, which has a total budget of €200 mil ion
(apx USD $254,096,834), was initiated in 2005 and is scheduled for
completion in 2015. The project has moved through initial stages of
articulating central values and visions to guide the project, idea
development, process planning, establishment of stakeholder net-
works, development of a program for an architectural competition,
and in 2009, the selection of the winning consortium to construct
the building and its environs. The architectural proposal is being
further developed, and tenders for contract work are under consid-
eration. During the remainder of the process, the construction wil
take place alongside continued investigations into the services that
should be housed in the Mediaspace (see Figure 1).
Our research group has orchestrated a series of Participa-
tory Design workshops concerning the development of Medias-
pace since 2009. We became involved in the project through an
existing partnership with the municipality in the Center for Digital
Urban Living, a research initiative exploring the ways in which
digital technologies transform the life in and of the city. Because
the Mediaspace project is central to the municipality’s digital strat-
egy, our col aboration in the project as interaction design research-
ers involved facilitating investigations into the integration of
interactive technologies into the Mediaspace building. We, thus,
arranged a series of events with Mediaspace stakeholders, many
of which centered on participatory activities. (See the section
titled “Participatory Activities in the Mediaspace Project” which
expands on several of these activities.)
Our current knowledge of the Mediaspace project and the
process comes from several sources: (1) We have “insider” insights
from the Participatory Design activities we have orchestrated for
the project; (2) we have held a number of meetings and conducted
36
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
interviews with the Mediaspace project manager and stakeholders,
including citizens, architects, contractors, library staff and man-
agement, and others; (3) we have to varying degrees taken part in
other citizen involvement activities in the project, both before and
during our own involvement as researchers, and we have dis-
cussed many of these activities with the responsible organizers;
and (4) because of the public nature of this project, we have had
access to its extensive documentation that is available to the pub-
lic.6 On this basis, we have approached the project from a Participa-
tory Design perspective to use it as a case for studying the
chal enges and opportunities of participation in large-scale public
projects. In the following sections, I present two aspects of the
project that are of special relevance from this perspective: The first
explores the notion of participation as a core value and project
driver; the second describes a series of Participatory Design activi-
ties executed for the project. A third section discusses three con-
cerns regarding the chal enges and opportunities for participation
in a project of this type.
Participation as a Central Value and Project Driver
The decision to establish the Mediaspace project rests on the
municipality’s political visions to establish Aarhus as a city of
knowledge, in conjunction with the awareness that emerging
digital technologies are transforming the role of libraries in
society. Since the project’s inception in 2005, citizen involvement
and participation has been articulated as a central value and driver
of the project. The manager of the Mediaspace project presents the
participatory agenda in the following way: “Mediaspace must
be built, established, and formed by the people who are going to
use it in the future. Those people are all of our users, all the citi-
zens of Aarhus, our staff, our stakeholders, our network and part-
ners. . Mediaspace should be a remarkable icon of col aboration.”7
One of the reasons that Participatory Design continues to
play a part in new design projects is that it is arguably more than
a col ection of techniques; it also represents a shared set of con-
cerns and values that connect existing techniques, and that are
6 All public documents pertaining to the
vital and mal eable enough to embrace new chal enges and inform
Mediaspace project are available online
new techniques for addressing these chal enges. The Mediaspace
at www.urbanmediaspace.dk/en
project is set in Scandinavia, and it is therefore pertinent to con-
(accessed March 8, 2012).
sider it in light of the Scandinavian systems development tradition.
7 Aarhus Municipality website,
In this tradition, political ideals and values permeated many early
www.multimediehuset.dk/sw3056.asp,
contributions. Ehn and Kyng summarize these ideals as quality of
translated from Danish by the author
(accessed December 10, 2011).
work and products, democracy at work, and education for local
8 Pelle Ehn and Morten Kyng, “The
development.8 More recently, Iversen et al. have revisited the val-
Collective Resource Approach to Systems
ues laid out by Ehn and Kyng and argued for revitalizing them to
Design,” in Computers and Democracy:
fit contemporary chal enges, thus reformulating them as quality in
A Scandinavian Challenge, G. Bjerknes,
P. Ehn, and M. Kyng, eds., (Aldershot,
England: Avebury, 1987), 17-57.
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
37
product and process, emancipatory potentials for the involved
stakeholders, and democracy–which now extends beyond tradi-
tional concerns for workplace democracy and into society at large.9
Although I do not consider the Mediaspace project a Partic-
ipatory Design project in the traditional sense of the term, it is a
project in which both the values and the techniques from Partici-
patory Design play a central role. One of the first steps in the proj-
ect was to schedule a series of participatory events involving
citizens, experts, cooperation partners, networks, employees, and
other interested parties. These events resulted in the articulation of
seven core values to be explored as part of the development pro-
cess and ultimately to be incorporated into the Mediaspace institu-
tion: (1) The Citizen as Key Factor; (2) Lifelong Learning and
Community; (3) Diversity, Cooperation, and Network; (4) Culture
and Experiences; (5) Bridging Citizens, Technology, and Knowl-
edge; (6) Flexible and Professional Organization; and (7) Sustain-
able Icon for Aarhus.10 This set of articulated values resonates wel
with the values of quality, emancipation, and democracy inherent
in the Participatory Design tradition. For example, both The Citi-
zen as Key Factor and Diversity, Cooperation, and Network
emphasize the democratic ideals of the library; Lifelong Learning
and Community and Culture and Experiences point to the emanci-
patory potential for citizens through learning and cultural devel-
opment. In addition, Bridging Citizens, Technology, and
Knowledge; Flexible and Professional Organization; and Sustain-
able Icon for Aarhus each address the concern for quality in pro-
cess and product. The seven values have subsequently served as
guidelines for the development of the project. Potential contractors
have had to explain in detail how they would involve the stake-
holders and potential end-users of the project in their specific
development processes, and these proposed involvement processes
have played an important role in the selection of contractors. For
9 Ole Iversen, Anne Marie Kanstrup
example, the competition brief for the architectural competition
and Marianne Graves Petersen, “A
explicitly states that the proposals also will be judged on the basis
Visit to the ‘New Utopia:’ Revitalizing
of how the seven values are addressed in the architectural process:
Democracy, Emancipation and Quality
“The values wil be parameters in determining whether the project
in Co-operative Design,” in Proceedings
of NordiCHI 2004 (New York: ACM
and Mediaspace are conducive to the realization of the vision.”11
Press, 2004): 171-79.
10 Søren Holm, Mediaspace–Core Values
Participatory Activities in the Mediaspace Project
(Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus Kommune,
Because of the emphasis placed on participation by the Medias-
2007), www.aakb.dk/files/file_attach-
pace developers, a large number of participatory initiatives have
ments/29._juni_2010_-_1355/coreval-
already happened, and still more are planned for the years to
uesmediaspace_web.pdf (accessed
March 8, 2012).
come. These initiatives have addressed both the building process
11 City of Aarhus, Mediaspace: Competition
and the changes for the library as an institution brought on by
Brief 1 (Aarhus, Denmark: 2007), 19.
new digital technologies. The initiatives fall into several different
http://www.urbanmediaspace.dk/sites/
categories: Some use conventional methods for public involvement,
default/files/pdf/konkurrencemateriale_
volume_1_english.pdf (accessed March
8, 2012).
38
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
Figure 2 (left)
others use existing or custom-made Participatory Design tech-
Photo of the Inspiration Card Workshop.
niques, some rely on new instruments or technologies to scaffold
participation, and some initiatives are long-running explorations
Figure 3 (right)
of how the library as a public institution is being or should be
The Living Blueprint Workshop.
transformed.
A series of conventional events for involving stakeholders,
including public hearings, have been held throughout the process.
These events are typical y open events announced in public media,
which feature the presentation of a specific aspect of the project
(e.g., the location of the new building or accessibility issues), fol-
lowed by open discussions. We also have used established Partici-
patory Design techniques in more focused events, such as
inspiration card workshops.12 These workshops are col aborative
design events in which professional designers and participants
who have knowledge of the design domain combine sources of
inspiration from the library domain and interactive technologies to
create design concepts. In addition to established techniques, we
also have developed several new participatory techniques specifi-
cally for the Mediaspace project. For example, the “living blue-
prints” technique addresses the problem that arises when users
and stakeholders have difficulty envisioning what the un-built
future building will be like, and thus also have difficulty voicing
opinions and developing concepts for it. In a living blueprint
workshop, participants take on the role of a cardboard character
and move themselves through the building to bring the future
environment alive; manipulating characters in this way allows
workshop participants to explore and comment on the un-built
building (see Figure 2 and 3).
In another series of participatory events, new technological
systems have been designed to inspire and facilitate citizen partic-
ipation. The installation, Voices of the City, is an example of a
12 Kim Halskov and Peter Dalsgård,
system developed specifically to scaffold participation in the
“Inspiration Card Workshops,” in
early phases of the Mediaspace project (see Figure 4 and 5).13 This
Proceedings of DIS 2006 (New York:
interactive exhibition provided an interactive table that al owed
ACM Press, 2006), 2-11.
users to maneuver around maps representing the city of Aarhus,
13 Rune Nielsen, New Uses of Interactive
Denmark, or the world. On each map, users could find and hear
Technologies in Spatial Design (Aarhus,
Denmark: Aarhus University, 2006),
81-101.
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
39
Figure 4 and 5
context-specific scenarios related to the roles and capabilities of the
Photos of Voices of the City Installations.
library and the future Mediaspace. In addition, users could add
comments to specific locations on the map by talking into a micro-
phone embedded in the table. In this way, users could share their
opinions or listen to what other users had to say and comment on
it. Two identical instal ations were developed and made available
at the Main Library in Aarhus and in a local arts center to gather
people’s opinions, and these recordings were synchronized with a
dedicated website.
Finally, a number of longitudinal initiatives comprising
multiple events have been carried out. For example, the Transfor-
mation Lab project initiative ran from 2004 to 2007 and was devel-
oped to explore and experiment with how the physical library
space can support both present and future user needs in the
library. In particular, the lab focused on how flexible physical set-
tings, interactive elements, and ubiquitous computing could be
developed and used to support knowledge dissemination and
activities in the physical library. In the foyer of the current munici-
pal library, five experimental labs were staged: the literature lab,
the news lab, the music lab, the exhibition lab, and the square (see
Figures 6 and 7). In each lab, different configurations of interactive
technologies and physical spaces were developed and tested. The
projects were located in the library foyer so that all library visitors
were exposed to the experiments and invited to take part in shap-
ing the future library. This approach yielded insights regarding
the physical space and materials, the role of users and librarians,
and the potential for external cooperation.
Discussion: Challenges to and Opportunities for Participation
The field of Participatory Design continuously faces new chal-
14 See Anne-Marie Oostveen and P. van den
Besselaar, “From Small-Scale to Large-
lenges and opportunities as methods from the field are brought
Scale User Participation: A Case Study of
into new contexts and digital technologies move into new
Participatory Design in e-Government
domains. Given the focus of this article, recent contributions to the
Systems” in Proceedings PDC 2004 (New
field, such as Oostveen and van den Besselaar and Simonsen and
York: ACM Press, 2004), 173-82; and
Hertzum are particularly salient because they examine the chal-
Simonsen and Hertzum, “Sustained
lenges that arise from employing Participatory Design approaches
Participatory Design: Extending the
Iterative Approach,” Design Issues 28,
to large-scale projects.14 Simonsen and Hertzum point out a series
no. 2 (Spring 2012), 10.
40
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
Figure 6
The Transformation Lab as News Lab.
Figure 7
Music Lab.
of specific chal enges identified in a large-scale effort to use Partic-
ipatory Design strategies in a healthcare sector development. These
chal enges include obtaining appropriate conditions and focus for
Participatory Design; managing a multitude of stakeholders; man-
aging stepwise implementation processes; and conducting realis-
tic, large-scale Participatory Design experiments.15 These same
chal enges are, to some extent, present in the Mediaspace project
and clearly are issues that have been and continue to be highly rel-
evant for the project management group. For example, the chal-
lenge of managing a multitude of stakeholders is particularly
pertinent. The same holds true for the chal enge of orchestrating
and conducting Participatory Design experiments as part of the
project (e.g., the transformation lab experiments). However, the
Mediaspace project differs from the earlier projects in a number of
ways—most specifically by being a public project aimed at the
entire city population. For this reason, I use the Mediaspace case in
the fol owing paragraphs to discuss a particular set of Participa-
tory Design concerns related to large-scale public development
15 Simonsen and Hertzum, “Sustained
projects, each of which presents designers with both chal enges
Participatory Design: Extending the
and opportunities.
Iterative Approach,” 10.
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
41
Addressing Heterogeneous Stakeholders and Establishing Participation
as a Relevant Activity
As suggested, the chal enges in managing the multitude of stake-
holders involved in or related to a project such as Mediaspace are
clearly visible. These stakeholders include politicians, sponsors,
various steering committee and project management team mem-
bers, architects, contractors, local institutions and organizations,
and perhaps most importantly, library staff and citizens, who can
be considered the end-users of the project. Many early Participa-
tory Design projects have been undertaken in workplace settings,
in which most stakeholders could be immediately identified, are
generally already connected in working toward some common
goal, and could relate easily to a development project. Although
they might not have readily conceived of how a development proj-
ect might change their future practice, they were most often very
familiar with their current practice. However, things are not so
straightforward for the citizens who will be the future users of the
library’s services. Because this group potential y comprises al of
the citizens of Aarhus, the target audience is highly heteroge-
neous. The difficulties are compounded by the fact that even
though identifying different types of users and involving them are
possible, their needs are likely to change in the future, perhaps
even before the Mediaspace project is completed, and likewise, the
library services might also be transformed in ways that are not yet
known. While many domains are chal enged by the emergence of
new technologies, the challenge posed to libraries is especially
pertinent, since technological developments in the distribution
and consumption of media can severely disrupt traditional library
services and functions. As the library setting changes, users whose
current practices for accessing information and media keep them
from using the library or participating in the project might actu-
ally become users, but without having helped to shape the library.
On the one hand, this situation presents designers with a highly
complex chal enge. On the other hand, it opens up new opportu-
nity spaces for design because it prompts designers to understand
the needs and practices of these potential users and explore ways
of involving them actively in the project.
One of the ways in which the Mediaspace project managers
have addressed this issue is by establishing participation as a cen-
tral value and articulating the seven core values as ongoing guide-
lines for the project. An example of how this perspective affects
the process can be found in the explication of the value, the citizen
as key factor: “It is important to retain a changeability that reflects
the citizen’s varied and changing needs. Therefore, the building
must contain versatile and flexible learning environments and
open spaces.”16 In this case, the awareness that users’ needs are
16 Aarhus Municipality, Mediaspace–Core
Values, 2.
42
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
heterogeneous and may change over time results in specific
demands for the future building and services, the required flexi-
bility of which is made apparent throughout the process in, for
example, the architectural competition brief.
Kensing identifies three key requirements for participation
in design: access to relevant information, the possibility for taking
an independent position on the problems, and participation in
decision-making.17 The task of distributing relevant information
about the Mediaspace project can be relatively easy for some stake-
holders (e.g., librarians and frequent library visitors) but very diffi-
cult for citizens who visit the library infrequently, or who do not
use the library at al . Even though the Mediaspace project is on a
massive scale, has had strong coverage in local media, and has
included a wide variety of citizen involvement events, only a smal
proportion of the population is aware of the project. Continuing to
raise awareness of the project’s existence means providing infor-
mation about how the process is organized, who the stakeholders
are, and how to influence it. The latter is particularly pertinent in
relation to participation: Establishing participation as a relevant
activity in which citizens should engage is not straightforward.
The Mediaspace project is of such a huge scale that future users—
especially casual or infrequent library users—might feel over-
whelmed by it and have difficulty conceiving that they can
influence the process. The citizens who are the intended future
users of the library might not recognize that the process is of
immediate relevance to them and thus might ignore information
about how they can become involved in this process. As Medias-
pace project manager Ostergard asserts, “[t]he big dilemma is that
you have to know the project is there before you can influence it.
And many people don’t discover the existence of the project until
construction of the building commences.”18
Developing Techniques and Technologies to Scaf old Participation
One of the ways in which the Mediaspace project has addressed
the concern for informing and involving citizens in the project is
through elements of the project such as Voices of the City and
Transformation Lab. In these projects, experimental prototyping
has played an important role, presenting users with instal ations
that inspire engagement and involvement while also exposing
stakeholders and users to assemblies of technologies that might
come to play important roles in the future library. For example,
Voices of the City was developed specifical y to inspire users of the
17 Finn Kensing, “The Trade Unions’
instal ation to voice their opinions about the future Mediaspace
Influence on Technological Change,” in
and its relationship to the city, the country, and the world; at the
Systems Design For, With and By the
same time, the instal ation was an experiment into how new forms
Users, U. Briefs et al. eds., (North
of interaction in public places can establish dialogue between
Holland: 1983).
authorities and citizens, as well as between citizens.
18 Marie Ostergard, Personal
Communication, (May 5, 2010).
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
43
Related to these types of experiments are techniques such
as Living Blueprint, which have been developed specifical y for the
purpose of scaffolding participation in the development process.
The technique was intended to improve the understanding of the
building and consequently the basis for participating in informed
dialogue about it, thus echoing the development of participatory
systems such as Voices of the City. In their work, Clement and van
den Besselaar expand on Kensing’s (1983) list of requirements for
participation, arguing for the availability of appropriate participa-
tory development methods and for leaving room for alternative
technical and organizational arrangements.19 A large-scale project
such as Mediaspace opens up new opportunity spaces for the
development of Participatory Design. Its development of new par-
ticipatory methods and technologies offers stakeholders ways of
experiencing and engaging with the project and yields insights
into how technological and organizational arrangements of the
library might shift.
Iterative Development and Institutional Transformation
Although the Mediaspace project is not a Participatory Design
project in the traditional sense of the word, it reflects the epistemo-
logical standpoint of Participatory Design: Designers need insight
into practice, users need insight into technological potentials, and
the best way of developing this reciprocal knowledge is col abora-
tively through joint, practice-based experiments. An aspect of the
Mediaspace project of particular interest from a Participatory
Design perspective is that the development process extends
beyond the development of a system or building because it also
concerns the development and potential transformation of the
institution through the project. Serving not just as an iterative pro-
cess model, Participatory Design also shows how iterative devel-
opment in large-scale projects goes hand in hand with institutional
transformation. Bødker and Iversen clarify that Participatory
Design aims not just to design technological systems, but also to
“design conditions for the whole use activity.”20 In the case of
Mediaspace, this aim extends into the overarching question of how
digital technologies will influence the role and services of the
library in society. This question is one that designers, and in this
case also the Mediaspace project managers, must embrace. Accord-
ing to Bødker and Iversen, designers must:
19 Andrew Clement and Peter van den
confront use with new ideas, as design is not a step-wise
Besselaar, “A Retrospective Look at
derivation of the new from the existing, neither is the new
Participatory Design Projects,” 29-37.
20 Susanne Bødker and Ole Iversen,
coming unexpectedly. Design is not a process heading
“Staging a Professional Participatory
toward a predetermined goal, but a process of which the
Design Practice: Moving PD Beyond the
vision is shaped in continuous interaction with the use
Initial Fascination of User Involvement,”
practices that it originates from, as well as with other uses,
in Proceedings of NordiCHI ‘02 (New
other technologies serving as guiding lights.21
York: ACM Press, 2002): 12.
21 Ibid.
44
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
This perspective speaks to the responsibility of designers and
project managers in large-scale public development projects to
address how ongoing changes in the society affect the project, and
to explore the influence of these changes through participatory
initiatives.
One of the chal enges that accompanies such a participatory
approach is that of synthesizing multiple streams of knowledge
that inform the development process. The long list of participatory
initiatives in Mediaspace implies an extensive series of inputs from
a wide variety of stakeholders. No formulaic checklists drive how
this information can productively be analyzed to inform the future
process, but designers and project managers nevertheless are
responsible for making sure it does so. In the Mediaspace project,
the information from participatory initiatives and involvement of
the public has been incorporated into the ongoing process in sev-
eral ways. In longitudinal events, such as Transformation Lab,
insights from one of the first lab experiments were incorporated
into the planning of later lab experiments. The findings from ongo-
ing experiments have been documented in reports made publicly
available (e.g., in the vision process and Transformation Lab).22
Findings also have often been presented in easily accessed formats
and distributed via social media. For example, the Transformation
Lab project group has a dedicated Youtube channel, which docu-
ments experiments and prototypes (http://www.youtube.com/
user/transformationlab); the library has a Flickr stream that is con-
tinuously updated with photos from events (http://www.flickr.
com/photos/aakb/); and the entire Mediaspace project is docu-
mented on a dedicated website (http://www.urbanmediaspace.dk/
en), which is continuously updated as the project progresses.
Insights and findings from the participatory events have
been incorporated into the ongoing process in manifest ways,
including in the visions that contractors have to address in their
bids. However, the most important, yet least tangible, way in
which this information has informed the process is through the
ongoing debates it has spurred among members of the Mediaspace
project groups and the steering committee. The chal enge of keep-
22 Søren Holm, Mediaspace–Core Values
(Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus Kommune,
ing the organization open to input and inspiration from citizens
2007), available online at http://www.
will remain, even after the completion of the Mediaspace building
aakb.dk/files/file_attachments/29._
as the institution continues to evolve along with society.
juni_2010_-_1355/corevaluesmedias-
Regarding the future Mediaspace, the vision for the institu-
pace_web.pdf (accessed March 8,
tion is that it will support and be open to ongoing development by
2012); and Aarhus Public Libraries,
Transformation Lab–A Report on Forms
both users and the institution: “Mediaspace should be a flexible
of Dissemination in the Physical Space
and dynamic sanctuary for everyone in search of knowledge,
(Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus Public
inspiration, and personal development—an open and accessible
Libraries, 2007).
learning environment supporting democracy and unity.”23 Explor-
23 Rolf Hapel and Marie Ostergard,
ing whether and how these ideals can be realized in practice wil
Mediaspace: Knowledge, Pulse, and
be a compel ing area of study.
roots (Aarhus, Denmark: Municipality
of Aarhus, 2007), 3.
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
45
Conclusion
This article has examined the role of values and strategies of Par-
ticipatory Design in large-scale public projects, and in particular
the chal enges and opportunities related to participation that arise
in such projects. The three concerns discussed here—addressing
heterogeneous stakeholders and establishing participation as a rel-
evant activity, developing techniques and technologies to scaffold
participation, and iterative development and institutional transfor-
mation—do not represent an exhaustive list of the topic; rather,
they are the most salient concerns that stem from approaching the
Mediaspace project from a Participatory Design perspective. The
underlying premise of this examination has been that Participa-
tory Design is more than a set of techniques; it instead encom-
passes a set of ideals and values that extend beyond the individual
techniques used. In the same line of thinking, the library can be
construed as a socio-cultural institution that serves as more than a
repository of physical media; more broadly, it is a bearer of culture
and an arena for participation and democracy. These ideals are
particularly salient in relation to the Mediaspace project because it
is a project paid for by citizens and sanctioned by elected politi-
cians that strives toward empowering citizens and strengthening
democracy. In many respects, the Mediaspace case therefore repre-
sents a rare attempt to place participation at the center of a large-
scale public project and to use Participatory Design techniques to
inform the project.
Approaching Mediaspace from a Participatory Design per-
spective has provided insights into the chal enges and opportuni-
ties for designers and project managers, offering to it knowledge
from the field about how specific participatory techniques work,
and showing how values inherent in Participatory Design can
inspire efforts in this type of domain. In return, the study of Medi-
aspace can contribute to the further development of Participatory
Design in large-scale public projects. The study presented here has
resulted in a relatively wel -developed understanding of central
challenges and opportunities in this domain; nevertheless, the
solutions to these chal enges and the ways in which these opportu-
nities might be seized are less obvious. Addressing these issues is
an ongoing task, and seeing the results of this work in the future is
of great interest—both in terms of the continuous development of
Mediaspace and in related projects—to those who pursue Partici-
patory Design.
Acknowledgments
This research has been supported by the Danish Council for Strate-
gic Research, grant 09-063245 (Digital Urban Living). The author
46
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
would like to thank Marie Østergård, project manager for the
Mediaspace project, and Eva Eriksson, Chalmers University of
Technology, for contributing with facts and insights regarding the
history and background of the project.
DesignIssues: Volume 28, Number 3 Summer 2012
47