Player-Programmed Partner Games
Codesigning games with kids to study equity in participatory design
This project uses codesign — building games together with kids, particularly in afterschool program settings — as both a design method and a lens for studying equity in participatory design. The games themselves, in which players program partner characters or robots, are the vehicle; the research questions concern how race, gender, and program culture shape whose ideas get heard and adopted in a codesign process. The work was carried out with Ross Higashi, Judith Odili Uchidiuno, Jonaya Kemper, Jaemarie Solyst, and Jessica Hammer.
The resulting publications examine the mechanics of participatory design with children, how the culture of a host program shapes design outcomes, and the experience of minoritized design researchers doing this work.