Looking at Participant Engagement for Product Design Through a Critical Lens

Abstract

Human factors focus on taking the users’ capabilities, limitations, and environment into consideration when developing products. Thus, it is essential to have diverse perspectives and voices when designing products to be used by a variety of users. However, this is not always done and can be a missed opportunity in developing inclusive products. In this panel, we bring together researchers from different sectors to discuss challenges and strategies to engage a diverse research population at different stages in the product design process. Topics include research planning and the design process; data collection methods; and community- and participant-level recruitment. We hope that by sharing our experiences, we can prepare others to have the conversations needed that will allow them to successfully approach these topics.