Dialogic design: harnessing collective wisdom for democratic design and action

Abstract

The proposed tutorial presents a half-day experiential process engaging participants in learning Structured Dialogic Design (SDD). Dialogic design is a radically democratic design perspective and set of methods for engaging mixed stakeholders in design and consensus action for complex sociotechnical problems shared in common. Based on a systems thinking methodology developed from principles of communicative action, dialogic design facilitates diverse groups in disentangling core issues from complex, interconnected problem areas and leads to genuine consensus for action. The SDD method deploys a mix of dialogue types with computer-assisted information displays to generate and maintain a shared common ground throughout dialogue.

Full text at ACM