I preferred the idea of using surveys to inform the design process for a new, renovated or refurbished library. The UK Design Council’s Double Diamond Model had many merits including the advice to firstly encourage reflection on the current library space before undergoing a refurbishment, renovation or rebuild of the school library. Often, we want to completely throw out the old and embrace the new, but I think that it is important to first consider what aspects of the current design already work.
By using surveys, stakeholders such as students, teachers, members of the Executive and parents could identify how often they currently use the school library and their reasons for doing so before suggesting improvements that they would like to see in the future. I think that participatory design is not only essential to ensuring feelings of ownership and inclusion but also ensures that students continue to use the library in the future as they see the relevancy of it for their needs.
In my current school context, both junior school and senior school students share the same library space. A combination of survey style data collection for the older students, teachers, the leadership team and parents are appropriate combined with data gathered from student-designed projects for the younger students who are less likely to be able to articulate their thoughts and ideas in writing and would benefit from a more visual task to communicate their ideas. Junior school students would best be able to communicate their ideas with a physical style survey or design project but in order to improve response participation in older students and their parents, I would consider the use of digital data collection such as a Google survey to encourage participation in the design process.
The best way to communicate and keep members of the school community updated about the library design process in my current school context would be to utilise the school’s FaceBook and Instagram accounts to reach parents and their children as most students and parents admit to not reading the school’s newsletter that is published fortnightly. I would also suggest using the weekly scheduled school assemblies to announce news of the upgrades to update and keep the student body and teachers informed.
References
Design Council. (2024). The Double Diamond: a universally accepted depiction of the design process. Liquid Light. https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/our-resources/the-double-diamond/
Kristin, this is a comprehensive participatory design strategy that is sure to engage your entire school community in the re-design of an existing library space. You have chosen a recognised model to help organise these participation strategies, which makes the process much more systematic. Advice for using this strategy in Assessment 1 is to include a few more references that justify/help to explain to the proposal audience why we would use participatory design in the first place. It seems like a no-brainer to those of us working in the field, but it might need to be made clear to your leadership team.