Children deconstructing the adult mastery in the Future Design Board case study; learning how to use story-making and design as tools for life

This paper examines a partnership between adult designers and ten-year-old children working together on a future-orientated design brief called the ‘Future Design Board’. The study was part of the author’s Ph.D. thesis and used a fusion of design and story-making processes as tools for critical thinking and everyday exploration. During the study, the children were positioned in the role of the imagination expert while the adults were positioned in the role of the learner.

This paper focuses on the impact that the partnership had on the adult participants; in particular, it reviews how the workshops allowed them to experience the power of children’s imagination and recognise what elements of this may have been lost in the process of growing up. At the same time, the paper reviews the different qualities that the adults began to reconsider; these include the value of sharing and allowing time to have fun, using all their senses to experience the world, taking risks and making mistakes. The paper also analyses how the methods of the workshop had impacted on the adults’ identities as designers and researchers. However, most importantly the paper discusses the importance of experiencing what children are capable of and the adults’ commitment to valuing their ideas.

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