While Participatory Design focuses on inclusion of users, in practice, Participatory Design may often fall short of its inclusive ideals. This is problematic as it could lead to disempowerment, inactive participation, and alienation of users. An important avenue for inclusion is to enable users, particularly those who are marginalized, to enact aspects of their identities and lived experiences in design. Materials, both tangible and intangible, are an important way that this enactment may be accomplished; yet materials are often overlooked and imposed on users in design. This can be problematic as the materials selected may not be relevant or useful to users’ situated contexts or goals, or, at worst, could lead to exclusion.

My dissertation seeks to understand how we might support users to enact core aspects of their identities and lived experiences in Participatory Design. To do this, I propose an approach that shifts control of design materials to users by inviting them to bring in personal objects from their lives. Using Research through Design, I developed a sociotechnical system called Talisman consisting of techniques to scaffold users’ selection and interaction with their personal objects in the design process. Over the course of a year, I collaborated with three distinct communities to embed Talisman in co-design workshops alongside young adults who are underrepresented in STEM education. These communities included: 1) A STEM education nonprofit based in Chicago focused on creating youth-led “Safe Spaces;” 2) A high school summer internship program based in Baltimore focused on Environmental Justice; and 3) a faculty-led research project at the College of Information Studies focused on redesigning undergraduate programming education to support diverse learners in light of Generative AI. I share direct observations and accounts from young adults into their experiences bringing in and engaging with their personal objects in the design of solutions for their communities. Afterwards, I present a cross-case analysis of the three case studies in which Talisman was deployed and discuss its implications for Participatory and Assets-based design practice within the fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).