Facilitating children’s co-design workshops
Insights and challenges from a case study
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22426825 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shengchen Yin (0009-0007-1475-6588, Peking University, corresponding author), Dena Kasraian (0000-0001-5253-0669, Eindhoven University of Technology), Gubing Wang (0000-0003-4847-534X, Tilburg University), Pieter Van Wesemael (0000-0001-5594-8315, Eindhoven University of Technology) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-22 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-10 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | CoDesign (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1571-0882 • E-ISSN: 1745-3755 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/15710882.2026.2685869 |
| OpenAlex | W7164398130 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 45 |
Efforts to include children as the end-users in the co-design process are increasing. This paper evaluates a co-design workshop from the perspectives of the participating children, the involved teacher, and researchers separately. It examines children’s satisfaction with using a provided toolkit through an entire design cycle and explores their interaction behaviour and experience. We conducted a co-design workshop with twenty-three 12–14-year-old Rotterdam children, who were asked to design their ideal nature-related digital games using a designed toolkit. We observed children’s behaviour and experience and conducted online surveys with children, interviews with their teacher, and collected reflections (on toolkit, workshop, and children’s engagement) from researchers afterwards. The findings indicate that children, while experiencing a high sense of enjoyment, behaved differently within and between groups. Findings highlight possible aspects to consider when designing children’s co-design toolkits and workshops (e.g. toolkit clarity, workshop procedure, teamwork style, and materials). Based on these, we identify key areas of attention and challenges for researchers, designers and organisers, discuss practical recommendations for addressing these challenges, and outline avenues for future research, particularly concerning ownership, scaffolding, workshop organisation, and the evaluation of children’s experience beyond enjoyment. The outcomes of this study are useful for planning future co-design workshops.
Qualitative research · Design Education and Practice · Innovative Education and Learning Practices · Innovative Human-Technology Interaction
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Observations of Children's Interactions with Teachers, Peers, and Tasks across Preschool Classroom Activity Settings
The Role of Tutoring in Problem Solving
Co-designing an Ideal Nature-Related Digital Tool With Children
Let’s discuss our city! Engaging youth in the co-creation of living environments with digital serious geogames and gamified storytelling
A qualitative evaluation of participants' experiences of using co‐design to develop a collective leadership educational intervention for health‐care teams
Exploring and developing reciprocity in research design
Moving From Co-Design to Co-Research
Now I see it, now I don't
| Highly cited | No |
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