Advancing Asset-Based Practice: Engagement, Ownership, and Outcomes in Participatory Design

Abstract

This paper aims to understand how asset-based approaches can enhance how design researchers work with communities. Asset-based approaches support people to share perspectives of complex societal issues, recognize local strengths and capabilities, and apply these to inform action and change. Situated in the field of participatory design and drawing from a project investigating concepts of wellbeing with a volunteer community in the Scottish Highlands, the paper explores how an asset-based mindset can shape research methods, tools, and techniques. This establishes practices of appreciative exploration, collaborative articulation, and creative activation. Advancing a model of asset-based practice, it proposes how design researchers can enrich their engagement with contexts and communities, strengthen participants’ ownership over the process, and co-design outputs to communicate experiences and insights to multiple stakeholders and audiences.

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