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Designing a Toolkit for Prototyping in Co-design of Future Wireless Communication Devices with Youth

Jin Yu, Karina Bhattacharya, Junzhe Yan, HyunJoo Oh PDF

While various co-design approaches with youth often emphasize ideation, this paper focuses on the role of prototyping in specifying and amplifying their contributions to co-design. We developed a prototyping toolkit to empower youth co-designers in envisioning the future wireless communication technologies.

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With a refined toolkit, we implemented the refined toolkit in a co-design study with 38 middle school students.

The co-design session spanned a single day, totaling six hours with a one-hour lunch break to answer the following research question.

RQ1: How effectively can the developed toolkit facilitate the prototyping stage for youth co-designers, given their limited knowledge and design experience?

RQ2: What kind of designs are suggested by youth? How does the active participation of young co-designers in the prototyping process help in gaining a deeper understanding of children’s real-life experiences and preferences?

The diversity of prototypes created by partcipatns showcased the tools’ effefctiveness in fostering their creativity and translating abstract ideas into tangible concepts. This not only bridged the gap between limited technical knowledge and creative expression but also cultivated a collaborative environment that forstered dynamic discussions and interdisciplinary exchanges.

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Designing a Toolkit for Prototyping in Co-design of Future Wireless Communication Devices with Youth

​RQ1: How effectively can the developed toolkit facilitate the prototyping stage for youth co-designers, given their limited knowledge and design experience?

RQ2: What kind of designs are suggested by youth? How does the active participation of young co-designers in the prototyping process help in gaining a deeper understanding of children’s real-life experiences and preferences?

RQ1: How effectively can the developed toolkit facilitate the prototyping stage for youth co-designers, given their limited knowledge and design experience?