This case study was part of the Design Your Life project: a project aimed at empowering young autistic adults to create personal products that promote their independence. The Design Your Life method uses co-design at its centre, and uses the embodied enactive approach to explain communication. For this project, I created and tested a toolkit with a young autistic adult and their professional caregiver. This particular case study had an emphasis on the effects of the toolkit on the communication between the young autistic adult and their caregiver.
The toolkit: first design round
The toolkit consists of two ‘design rounds’: two iterative design cycles that the participants go through. The first design round consists of a set of activity boxes, each containing all the activities, related materials and explanations for one design phase. These phases are: understand, define, ideate, prototype, test and evaluate. The activity outcomes are recorded on the design board. This board is used as a central point of reference in the participant’s design process.
The toolkit: second design round
The participants use this design round to reflect on their prototype and design process. They do this using a board game that allows them to select activities that will help them to supplement their understanding of the design goal and improve their prototype.
The future
The Design Your Life toolkit is a project that will continue until 2024. Currently, a new toolkit is being developed based on the several design cases that have been completed. I will remain part of this project as a researcher until February 2022. For more information, visit the Design Your Life website or contact me.