How Can We Expand Unintended Outcomes in Participatory Design?

This paper investigates the mechanisms by which design deliverables contribute to other design activities in unintended contexts in a participatory design (PD). Specifically, this paper focuses on the need-solution pair (NSP) problem-solving process, an emerging concept in organizational economics. We first briefly introduce this concept and then investigate the implication of a viable NSP search in relation to PD. This exploration is exemplified by a case study in the field of well-being, which presents the key elements of NSP problem solving in PD. The nature of PD such as democratic participation, empowerment, and respect for field sites can make the NSP search more effective and enriching, and the results of participatory NSP problem solving have the potential to integrate activities of participant groups in different contexts and reconfigure them as an ecosystem that makes them contribute to each other.