Co-designing inclusive events elevates participant engagement and ownership.

Why It Matters

Traditional event design often overlooks the diverse needs and perspectives of its audience. By adopting a co-design approach, practitioners can create more meaningful and impactful experiences that resonate deeply with participants, leading to greater buy-in and a stronger sense of community.

Key Finding

When staff and students co-design an event, it becomes more inclusive, relevant, and engaging for everyone involved, shifting away from traditional, top-down event formats.

Key Findings

• A co-designed unconference model can effectively challenge traditional, hierarchical conference structures.
• Involving students as equal partners in the design process leads to more authentic and contextually relevant outcomes.
• The critical-digital pedagogy framework supported transformative learning and equitable participation.

Research Evidence

Aim: How can a co-design approach, specifically involving both staff and students, create a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive event experience?

Method: Co-design Workshop

Procedure: A cross-disciplinary project team of staff and students collaboratively designed and delivered an 'unconference' focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion. This involved shared decision-making throughout the planning and execution phases, positioning all participants as equal contributors.

Context: Academic/Educational Event Design

Design Principle

Empower stakeholders by integrating them into the design process to ensure relevance, inclusivity, and ownership.

How to Apply

When planning any user-facing event, establish a diverse co-design team that includes representatives from your target audience. Use collaborative tools to brainstorm, prioritize features, and make key decisions together.

Limitations

The specific context of an academic 'unconference' may not directly translate to all event types. The success of co-design is highly dependent on the willingness and capacity of participants to engage actively.

Student Guide (IB Design Technology)

Simple Explanation: If you want to make an event (like a workshop or conference) really good for the people who will attend, ask them to help design it from the start. This makes it fairer and more useful for everyone.

Why This Matters: This research shows that involving your target users in the design process leads to better, more inclusive outcomes for your design projects.

Critical Thinking: To what extent can the principles of co-designing an 'unconference' be applied to the development of physical products or digital services, and what adaptations would be necessary?

IA-Ready Paragraph: The co-design approach, as demonstrated in research by Dianati and Hickman (2023), highlights the transformative potential of involving end-users directly in the design and delivery of events. By positioning participants, such as students and staff, as equal partners, it is possible to create more equitable, diverse, and inclusive experiences that challenge traditional, hierarchical formats and foster a greater sense of ownership and relevance.

Project Tips

• Clearly define the roles and responsibilities of co-design participants.
• Document the co-design process thoroughly to demonstrate user involvement.
• Use visual tools and methods to facilitate communication and idea generation.

How to Use in IA

• Reference this study when justifying your use of user research and co-design methods to ensure your product or service meets user needs.
• Use the findings to support the argument that user involvement leads to more equitable and effective design solutions.

Examiner Tips

• Demonstrate a clear understanding of how user involvement enhances design outcomes.
• Show evidence of genuine collaboration with users, not just feedback collection.

Independent Variable: ["Involvement of staff and students in the design process (co-design vs. traditional design)","Use of a critical-digital pedagogy framework"]

Dependent Variable: ["Equity, diversity, and inclusion of the event","Participant engagement and ownership","Transformative learning"]

Controlled Variables: ["Focus of the event (equity, diversity, inclusion)","Format of the event ('unconference')"]

Strengths

• Directly involves target audience in the design process.
• Challenges conventional design approaches.
• Focuses on creating inclusive and equitable outcomes.

Critical Questions

• How can potential power imbalances between different stakeholder groups be managed within a co-design process?
• What are the long-term impacts of co-designed events on participant attitudes and behaviours?

Extended Essay Application

• Investigate the application of co-design principles to the development of community-focused projects or public services.
• Explore how co-design can be used to address specific social equity issues within a particular domain.

Source

Co-designing an equity, diversity, and inclusion (un)conference by and for staff and students · International Journal for Students as Partners · 2023 · 10.15173/ijsap.v7i2.5398