A CaT is a tool to help facilitate the practice of Inclusive Design. It’s goal is to engage a “full diversity of potential users”, a key principle [Insights] in the practice of Inclusive Design, in the design process. In essence, a CaT is a diverse community of co-designers (or co-creators) brought together to contribute to the collective design of a system, product or service. Inclusive Design practices include: accessibility integration from the start, open work, a focus on functional needs and preferences, frequent testing, inclusive facilitation, design for adaptability and flexibility and design for uncertainty.
A CaT may also be considered as collective creativity or participatory design (Wikipedia page on Participatory Design), all of which are fundamentally a process that includes both the expertise of system/product/service designers/researchers and the situated expertise of users (those impacted by change to or creation of new systems, products and services). (Sanders and Stappers).
A CaT aims to create an environment that encourages input from diverse perspectives. “In keeping with the edict 'nothing about us without us', this principle is about including a diversity of people with a broad range of needs, preferences, interests and skills into the design process, and in so doing, weakening [blurring] the distinction [line] between user and designer.” source: https://guide.inclusivedesign.ca/insights/DiverseParticipationAndPerspectives.html
A CaT should encourage active involvement from users or potential users of the system, product or service being iterated upon—the key is to have involvement of a diversity of users, users whose needs aren’t met, users whose needs are constantly in flux; users whose insights are not available elsewhere because they do not fit into a construct of “average”.
CaTs can be applied at as many points as possible in the design process. To practice inclusive design there should be several touch points throughout a design process, and not simply at the beginning. To design inclusively it is important to review progress with and have input from a CaT community at multiple stages.
A CaT intends to:
Collecting, sorting and applying information generated at a CaT aims to maintain all individual contributions as important as the other. They are a collection of perspectives that contribute to robust and agile solutions rather than reductive practices of data analysis that contribute to a concept of an “average”.
CaTs are “short term collaborations between small groups”, similar to a Hackathon (Also refer to https://handbook.floeproject.org/InclusiveMakingAndHacking.html). A Hackathon commonly appeals to the "technical" end of the spectrum either by focusing on digitally-based design solutions or engineering physical artifacts. A CaT aims to be broader than a traditional Hackathon in that it encompasses all forms of design mediums (industrial, interior, graphic and digital) and seeks to generate ideas and stories that inform the shape of a solution rather than attempting to create a solution.
When to consider using a CaT:
Use a CaT to help gather ideas, stories, perspectives that give you possible directions for further exploration.
Setting up a CaT:
The Energy Skate Park sim is a challenging sim because:
PhET Energy Skate Park Simulation
Sanders, Elizabeth B.-N, and Pieter Jan Stappers. Convivial Design Toolbox. Amsterdam: BIS, 2014. Print.!DIgeneral1234
Guide.inclusivedesign.ca. (2017). Welcome to The Inclusive Design Guide | Inclusive Design Guides. [online] Available at: https://guide.inclusivedesign.ca/index.html [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].