George Triantafyllakos , George Palaigeorgiou , Ioannis A. Tsoukalas
September 2009
People and Computers XXIII Celebrating People and Technology (HCI)
Computers XXIII Celebrating People and Technology
1 - 5 September 2009
Design alter egos, fictional characters, scenarios, participatory design, collaborative design sessions, students
The paper presents a novel approach to collaborative design of educational software with students, one that asks the participants for the formation and use of fictional characters – design alter egos – as a means towards eliciting requirements and design ideas. In order to evaluate the suggested approach, we conducted 12 collaborative design sessions with the participation of 54 undergraduate university students (aged 19 to 24) for eliciting requirements for the design of an ideal course website. The analysis of the results showed that the design alter egos liberated the majority of the students from the fear of straightforwardly exposing themselves, supported and enhanced their introspection, stimulated their creativity and helped to establish an informal and constructive atmosphere throughout the design sessions. We suggest the use of design alter egos as an engaging and effective supportive technique for co-designing educational software with students.
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