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The field of Library and Information Science (LIS) has historically struggled to connect theory and practice in its graduate education, specifically when it comes to building partnerships with diverse stakeholders in public library communities. One possible technique for bridging the gap of stakeholder experiences is academically based community service (ABCS) courses. ABCS courses attempt to directly focus on research-practitioner partnerships to solve real-world problems by involving the community to democratically co-design the curriculum. In this paper, we present a reflective case study of an ABCS course on integrating participatory design methods to co-design new digital learning activities for youth in an urban public library. By conducting 10 co-design sessions and 26 semi-structured interviews, we examined a partnership between a university and a library, and how this ABCS course impacted different stakeholder participation. Our findings highlight how ABCS courses require systematic structural endeavors from higher education and care between all stakeholders within a library setting. This work contributes to a growing body of work that calls for more courses in LIS education with greater civic and democratic engagement between graduate students, university partners, and library stakeholders.

BACKGROUND Just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs) in mobile health are an intervention design that provides behavior change support based on an individual’s changing and dynamic contextual state. However, few studies have documented how end users of JITAI technologies are involved in their development, particularly from historically marginalized families and children. Less is known for public health researchers and designers of the tensions that occur as families negotiate their needs. OBJECTIVE We aimed to broaden our understanding of how historically marginalized families are included in co-design from a public health perspective. We sought to address research questions surrounding JITAIs; co-design; and working with historically marginalized families, including Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) children and adults, regarding improving sun protection behaviors. We sought to better understand value tensions in parents’ and children’s needs regarding mobile health technologies and how design decisions are made. METHODS We examined 2 sets of co-design data (local and web-based) pertaining to a larger study on mobile SunSmart JITAI technologies with families in Los Angeles, California, United States, who were predominantly of Latinx and multiracial backgrounds. In these co-design sessions, we conducted stakeholder analysis through perceptions of harms and benefits and an assessment of stakeholder views and values. We open coded the data and compared the developed themes using a value-sensitive design framework by examining value tensions to help organize our qualitative data. Our study is formatted through a narrative case study that captures the essential meanings and qualities that are difficult to present, such as quotes in isolation. RESULTS We presented 3 major themes from our co-design data: different experiences with the sun and protection, misconceptions about the sun and sun protection, and technological design and expectations. We also provided value flow (opportunities for design), value dam (challenges to design), or value flow or dam (a hybrid problem) subthemes. For each subtheme, we provided a design decision and a response we ended up making based on what was presented and the kinds of value tensions we observed. CONCLUSIONS We provide empirical data to show what it is like to work with multiple BIPOC stakeholders in the roles of families and children. We demonstrate the use of the value tension framework to explain the different needs of multiple stakeholders and technology development. Specifically, we demonstrate that the value tension framework helps sort our participants’ co-design responses into clear and easy-to-understand design guidelines. Using the value tension framework, we were able to sort the tensions between children and adults, family socioeconomic and health wellness needs, and researchers and participants while being able to make specific design decisions from this organized view. Finally, we provide design implications and guidance for the development of JITAI mobile interventions for BIPOC families.

Background In this study, we describe a participatory design process to develop a technology-based intervention for sun protection for children and their parents. Our methodology embraces and leverages the expert knowledge of the target users, children and their parents, about their sun protection practices to directly influence the design of our mobile just-in-time adaptive intervention (JITAI). The objectives of this paper are to describe our research procedures and summarize primary findings incorporated into developing our JITAI modules. Methods We conducted 3 rounds of iterative co-design workshops with design expert KidsTeam UW children (N: 11–12) and subject expert children and their parents from local communities in California (N: 22–48). Iteratively, we thematically coded the qualitative data generated by participants in the co-design sessions to directly inform design specifications. Results Three themes emerged: (1) preference for non-linear educational format with less structure,; (2) situations not conducive for prioritizing sun protection; and (3) challenges, barriers, and ambiguity relating to sun protection to protect oneself and one’s family. Based on the design ideas and iterative participant feedback, three categories of modules were developed: personalized and interactive data intake module, narrative-education module with augmented reality experiment, person/real-time tailored JITAI, and assessment modules. Conclusions This is one of the first projects that maximally engage children and parents as co-designers to build a technology to improve sun protection with iterative and intentional design principles. Our scalable approach to design a mobile JITAI to improve sun protection will lay the foundation for future public health investigators with similar endeavors. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12529-021-09987-9.

Libraries play a central role for youth and digital learning. As libraries transition to learning spaces, youth librarians can engage in aspects of democratic design that empowers youth. P...

We perpetuate, reinforce, and have the opportunity to disrupt systemic injustices through the actions we take as individuals. As an IDC community, we have a responsibility to reflect upon our behaviors and the commitments we make to ensure our engagements with youth, especially those that identify as Black or brown, are justice-centered. In this workshop, we invite researchers and practitioners to reflect on what is at stake if the IDC community does not intentionally take a justice-centered approach throughout our methods, our research questions, and our everyday interactions with youth. The goals of our workshop are two-fold: (1) To share stories about the actions we take as researchers with power to influence change in our interactions with youth, and (2) To establish the commitments the IDC community can make for more equitable design and research engagements with youth.

Co-designing with children in an online environment is increasingly important due to external factors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and the diversification and inclusion of youth participants. Many prior studies about co-design with youth focus on co-located or asynchronous online sessions. However, conducting synchronous online co-design sessions adds layers of complexity and uncertainty to collaboration. This paper introduces a model explicating factors to consider when co-designing with children synchronously in an online space. We examined ten consecutive intergenerational participatory design sessions online where children (ages 7-11) and adults designed new technologies. Along with highlighting unexpected moments and interactions, we use theories of improvisation to guide our understanding of dynamic situations that are out of the control of researchers. This work contributes to improving theoretical understanding of improvisation as a method of inquiry for co-designing with youth, and offers practical suggestions for suitable online co-design techniques and implementation.

Participatory Design (PD) is a design methodology that incorporates the end users in the design process. An active area of research in PD focuses on designing new technology with children. As more libraries are offering different technologies to their patrons—especially to children—there is an increasing need to think about how to best incorporate such technologies into library services. Recent interest in the field has encouraged librarians to situate themselves as designers, and to find creative solutions to the problems that arise in library settings. However, design methods are not widely utilized in the field of library and information science. In this study, we have interviewed pre-service librarians and children participants who did participatory design in libraries within a service-learning course. These participatory design sessions focused on incorporating new technologies into library programming. Our study indicates that PD is a possible method for capturing the ethos of librarianship. Pre-service librarians found that PD allowed them to effectively enact values of service, such as democratic participation and creativity, while children valued being heard from adults in the library and helping their community.

BACKGROUND In this study, we describe a participatory, co-design process to develop a technology-based pilot intervention (Mobile SunSmart) for sun safety for children and their families. Our methodology embraces and leverages the expert knowledge children and their families have about their sun safety practices to directly influence the design of our JITAI-intervention. OBJECTIVE The objective of this paper is to describe our research procedures and summarize primary findings to be used for the development of our JITAI prototype. METHODS We conducted iterative co-design workshops involving design expert KidsTeam UW children (N=11) and subject expert children and their families from local communities in Southern California (N=48). Based on the qualitative data from co-design discussions and artifacts, relevant themes and distinct concepts were extracted and coded by the investigators. RESULTS Three overarching themes emerged: 1) preference for non-linear educational format with less structure for sun safety-related education, 2) situations are not always ideal or convenient for prioritizing sun safety, 3) challenges, barriers and ambiguity relating to sun safety to protect oneself and one’s family. The discussions also highlighted that not all technological artifacts would be equally suitable for everyone or across all contexts. Based on the design ideas and feedback provided by our participants, three modules are under development: personalized and interactive data intake module, narrative-education module, person-level and real-time tailored JITAI and assessment modules. CONCLUSIONS Mobile SunSmart is one of the first projects that maximally engage children co-designers and families to build a technology to improve sun safety with iterative and intentional design principles. Our scalable approach to design a mobile JITAI to improve sun safety will lay the foundation for future public health investigators for similar endeavor.

Research suggests that parental engagement through Joint Media Engagement (JME) is an important factor in children's learning for coding and programming. Unfortunately, parents with limited technology background may have difficulty supporting their children's access to programming. English-language learning (ELL) families from marginalized communities face particular challenges in understanding and supporting programming, as code is primarily authored using English text. We present BlockStudio, a programming tool for empowering ELL families to jointly engage in introductory coding, using an environment embodying two design principles, text-free and visually concrete. We share a case study involving three community centers serving immigrant and refugee populations. Our findings show ELL families can jointly engage in programming without text, via co-creation and flexible roles, and can create a range of artifacts, indicating understanding of aspects of programming within this environment. We conclude with implications for coding together in ELL families and design ideas for text-free programming research.

There has been a growing concern over the huge increase in use of smart media by young children. This study explores the possibility of using augmented-reality(AR) for regulat-ing preschoolers' media usage behavior. With MABLE (mobile application for behavioral learning and education), parents can provide AR-assisted feedback by changing facial expressions and sound effects. When overlaying a smart media, which has MABLE running, in front of a QR marker on a puppet, a facial expression is displayed on top of the puppet's face. A two-week long experiment with 36 parent-child pairs showed that compared to using just the puppet, using MABLE showed higher amount of engage-ment among preschoolers. For the effectiveness of parental mediation in terms of self-control, our data showed mixed results. MABLE had positive effects in that the amount of rule-compliance increased and problematic behaviors de-creased, whereas the level of behavioral dependency on smart media was not influenced.

Prior studies have focused on child interactions in participatory design (PD) with adults and children, but less is known about what specific adult-child interactions constitute a partnership. In this study, we unpack what constitutes an "equal partnership" in PD between adults and children. On the basis of prior literature, we created a new framework that examines the complementary roles between children and adults. Next, we analyzed a case study of a year-long intergenerational design team of children (ages 7-11) and adults. From this analysis, we determined that design partnerships are composed of four dimensions that span from unbalanced to balanced interactions: facilitation, relationship building, design-by-doing, and elaborating together. Finally, to demonstrate its utility, we analyzed two focal co-design sessions using our framework. Our analysis suggests that equal partnership in PD is not a single static interaction but a development over time of design interactions influenced by context, experience, and participants.

Prior research has established that long-term interests in programming are often shaped by formative computing experiences, especially those involving programming and graphics. Existing authoring environments for children (ages 9-14) to make 2D games and animations require them to: (a) create programs, (b) customize templates, or (c) combine rewrite rules with programs. One way to support early experiences in computing for a more diverse set of learners is to simplify such authoring systems, by removing text heavy code and minimizing cognitive load, which can allow separation of coding concepts from writing code. In this paper, we describe an exploratory system we are designing to test this idea, called BlockStudio. Using a Programming By Example paradigm, children manipulate colored blocks on the screen to specify desired behavior via concrete changes. Based on these inputs, our system synthesizes generalized rules based on color. We give a brief overview of our current prototype, then share insights gleaned from two intergenerational co-design sessions with children and discuss implications for designers of similar systems.