Participants' view on personal gains and PD process

Abstract

While it is commonly claimed that users of participatory design projects reap benefits from their participation, little research exists that shows if this truly occurs in the real world. In this paper, we introduce the method and results of assessing the participants' perception of their personal benefits and the degree of participation in a large project in the healthcare field. Our research shows that a well-executed participatory design project can produce most of the benefits hypothesized in the literature but also highlights the challenges of assessing individual benefits and the PD process.