Engaging Stakeholders in the Design Process

Stakeholders are the people who have an active interest in the design process and/or whose contributions, expertise, skills and experience can shape the design process.

When designing for learning, I have had experience connecting primarily with two types of stakeholders: subject matter experts and representatives from my intended learner populations. When actively included in the design process, these stakeholder types offer input that becomes an invaluable resource to any design process; their perspectives have the potential to shape designs in distinct ways.

Engaging with subject matter experts can shape the "what," "how," and "why" of a design: the content, pedagogical approach, and the value of the learning objectives.

Developing both Pollinator Protectors and Artful Analytics required me to learn new content I was not familiar with because I needed to know the ins-and-outs of local ecology (specifically native pollinators) and data science in order to support others' learning journeys. Not only did I need a conceptual understanding of these topics, but I also needed to know how to best help my intended learner populations, which in both cases was elementary schoolers, understand these concepts too. Consequently, I needed to connect with subject matter and pedagogical experts who were willing to share their knowledge with me.

The experts I spoke with when developing Pollinator Protectors included a farm educator at a local high school, an urban ecology intern, and the co-founder of a biodiversity participatory science program. Those I spoke with for Artful Analytics included a senior researcher and a mathematician/computer scientist who have both developed out-of-school time data science programs for youth as well. Collectively, these experts generously shared their know-how that I used to generate a starting point for what to try first and what to avoid, sharing resources and ideas that eased the design process.

Engaging with intended learners can help match the "what," "how," and "why" of a design to the "who," so that the resulting design is usable and enjoyable to those engage with it.

When developing the Community-Based Math Teacher Resources, the teachers who participated in the project served a dual role that made it especially important to work closely with them when designing: they were both experts in teaching elementary math AND they were the intended learning population for the design product (i.e, teachers who had already participated in MathTalk's Community-Based Math professional development). My initial teacher resource prototype, an activity plan for implementing a seed sorting activity, was based on the thease teachers' initial ideas from the professional development workshop. Gradually I refined and elaborated upon this prototype and even had them test it during the focus group, asking follow-up questions to elicit their feedback that helped me develop the next iteration of the resource. These teachers helped shape the content and provided input about how they, and others like them, would want to interact with it.

Likewise, I also engaged with intended learners when working on the symmetry dot grid: young children and their families. This case differed in that what I learned from these learners came from observing their interactions with the prototype, the symmetry dot grid installation, not from interviewing or speaking directly with them. Through this stakeholder engagement method, I was able to uncover patterns in learners' engagement by analyzing the observation data. These patterns helped me understand both the successes and pain points of each iteration which I then used to improve the design.

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