Co-design methods for working with children have often been developed for children in middle childhood, about 7-11 years old. While many of the same techniques can be used for middle childhood into the teen years, the ways in which sessions are set up and in which you interact with teenagers will be different.
- Teenagers have complicated schedules. School and clubs may now also compete with extended studying and jobs. Remaining flexible as to when to hold co-design sessions can be helpful when scheduling. Consider doing hybrid or remote sessions to offer more flexibility.
- Teenagers may want to participate more in the leadership of co-design sessions. Especially if they have experience co-designing as a younger child, they may request, or show an interest in, helping to plan and run sessions. Allowing them to do this will likely increase their excitement and participation in the design.
- As teenagers learn more content, they may bring not only expertise in being teenagers, but also may bring content-area or technological expertise depending on the design. Be sure to honor and support all of the expertise they have.
- Often, both parents and teenagers will request that designers communicate directly with teenagers for purposes of planning. While we want to support teenagers’ burgeoning independence as well as honor the wishes of the families, it is important to be sure that in doing so you are still complying with any requirements of your institution in terms of teenagers being minors. One way to do this is to e-mail or otherwise communicate with teenagers while keeping parents or guardians cc’d.
- Teenagers often have a broader view than younger children and might want to focus not only on technology being designed, but also on the context and societal implications of the technology. Including teenagers in discussions of these can be motivating and insightful.
