Co-design in the wild: a case study on meme creation tools

The internet meme has become a vital form of self-expression in social communities throughout the Internet. The tools facilitating meme-creation, specifically image macros, have been little-studied but endow non-technical users with the ability to create the multi-layered graphics typical to such memes. The use of these creativity tools provides a unique setting in which to explore the concept of co-design, wherein tools are shaped in response to emergent user needs. Users and designers of meme-creation tools have evolved ways of collaborating and communicating over time, in a fully naturalistic setting. This study explores these processes through survey and interviews of tool designer/developers and an analysis of users' design ideas generated over time. The study finds that, while co-design may be commonly practiced today, these activities raise numerous challenges to participatory design, including: creating trust between designers and users, managing unwieldy system growth, and supporting features specific to aspiring end-user crafters.