How can design support building tech tools which amplify movement organizing? Research Action Design uses codesign, research justice, and participatory action research approaches to build online and offline tools which are collaborative, participatory and movement-centered. While every situation is unique, over the years we've developed a set of re-usable and adaptable co-design tools which can help center tech design in the knowledge, experience and needs of organizers and impacted communities.
In this workshop, we'll introduce a codesign framework for technology projects and walk through real-world case studies of building web-based platforms to support migrant worker organizing. We'll share specific design activities that RAD has used, and invite participants to practice them in the workshop space.
You'll leave with a set of codesign tools and activities which you can apply to your own projects!
The main goal of the session is to spark awareness and interest in using codesign and design justice frameworks for building technology tools.
We hope that participants will leave with a deeper knowledge of these frameworks as they manifest in long-term, ongoing, real-world tech design processes, and with the confidence to start using codesign in their own work moving forward.
We're hoping that many efforts and discussions will continue after Mozfest. Share any ideas you already have for how to continue the work from your session.:It seems like this would depend a lot on both participant interest and synergy with other sessions in the space, but it would be exciting to create an ongoing shared space (either via Slack or a Listserve) where codesign practitioners building tech tools could continue to share learnings & advice.
We also envision longer-term building a shareable toolkit of codesign activities, which the work from the session could build into.
How will you deal with varying numbers of participants in your session?:For the second half of the workshop, we'll be asking participants to divide into breakout groups (of 4-5 people each) to practice several co-design activities, and then share back to the main group. We'll create Riseup pads for each group with instructions & a notes template, so that groups can self-facilitate and the number of groups can scale depending on the number of participants attending. We've facilitated most of these activities with groups ranging from around 3-4 to 25-30 people, and will be able to draw on that experience to adapt the facilitation plan if need be.
We'll also use polls and/or a virtual whiteboard / sticky notes to share report-backs asynchronously, particularly if there are a large number of participants. With a very small number of participants, we can all just stay in the main workshop space together.
As a worker-owner at Research Action Design, Tim Stallmann works with organizations and communities to co-design maps, data and technologies which facilitate social change.
Chris Schweidler is a worker-owner at Research Action Design, and works with organizations and communities to co-design movement research and technologies.