Exploring Authenticity in Participatory Design (APD): Towards a Framework of lived experience & relational ethics in Co-Creation

This exploratory paper examines authenticity as both a value and a practice within Participatory Design (PD). It introduces the Authenticity in Participatory Design (APD) framework as a reflective and methodological lens to evaluate the depth and quality of participation. Grounded in two decades of PD, rethinking of Universal Design (UD)/Inclusive Design (ID) [1], social innovation practice and reflected on a year-long process, the APD framework integrates four modes of engagement—Design FOR, WITH, BY, and AS People—to explore how participation becomes authentic through lived experience, ethical reflection, and redistribution of power. Drawing on two practice-led projects in dementia care and prison rehabilitation, the paper argues that authenticity is not a procedural guarantee but a relational, affective, and situated achievement. It emerges when participants/people and designers engage with empathy, vulnerability, and mutual accountability of lived experience. Authenticity, in this view, is a dynamic condition that transforms both process and people, positioning PD as a collective practice of learning to live together differently.

• https://www.pdc2026.polimi.it/
• https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/37894...
• https://files.designskolenkolding.dk/pro...