Participatory design is a technique in which
representative users provide continual feedback to designers as
they develop preliminary prototypes in low-fidelity media (e.g.,
pencil and paper). This method gives users an opportunity to interact
with their suggestions for the product before those suggestions
are codified into a program. Often these interactions lead to practical
improvements on user suggestions. Such improvements can result in
a product that better fits the need underlying the user's suggestion,
as opposed to merely following the suggestion itself. Since studies
show that user-designed systems are generally less usable than systems
designed using mental modeling techniques, it's advisable to use
a feedback loop such as participatory design before implementing
user suggestions in a final product.
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