Mobile Voices: Design as a method to explore the possibilities and limitations of community participation

Abstract

Despite the growing significance of mobile devices, especially among marginalized communities, there are few explorations of how participatory design (PD) can be applied to mobile communication technologies. This case study of Mobile Voices (VozMob) explores a community-based approach to PD and its potential to promote the participation of groups typically marginalized from the design process, and to empower users. VozMob is a mobile platform that was codesigned with and for immigrant workers and organizers to facilitate the online publishing of multimedia stories about their lives and their social justice efforts. Through collective visualization methods, observation, and interviews, this study investigates the factors that enabled or hindered meaningful user participation in the VozMob design process. Significant differences emerged between participants’ experiences of the design process, which allow for the exploration of themes related to technology appropriation, design ownership, and power sharing in collaborative processes. Our findings reveal that a community-based approach to PD can shed light on the degree to which—and how—collaborative design and equitable participation is possible through mobile media.