ABSTRACT
Participatory design can be defined as an approach that attempts to engage everyone in the process to ensure that the designed product or service meets his or her needs. The participatory approach ensures that everyone in the community including women and children can be empowered to transform their environment (Figures 6.1 and 6.2). This approach can be used in software design, urban design, architecture, landscape architecture, product design, sustainability, planning or even medicine as a way of producing designs or products that are more responsive and appropriate to their users’ cultural and practical needs. Participation encourages a collaborative process that can be more complex and slow but enriches the end product, which then has more significance to the users. Through participation, the participants can also influence decision making for future projects and strengthen democratic processes. As Sherry Arnstein has argued, citizen participation is ultimately citizen power.2
