QUILT: Designing a values-driven toolkit for surfacing participant-led impact assessment of participatory design and making experiences

Conventional impact assessment tools can overlook subtle sensory, cognitive and interpersonal transformations experienced in participatory design and making interventions by focusing on metrics, often retrospectively, rather than facilitating shared dialogue-based learning. The process of designing the QUILT toolkit discussed in this paper is anchored in a values-based approach that aims to prioritise participant-led narratives of discovery and change. Working with seven researcher-practitioners undertaking active projects in varied interdisciplinary and socially engaged design and making contexts, and their participant groups, we designed and tested questions, presented as a set of cards, for prompting dialogue and co-reflection. Findings highlight a) the significance of moving away from extractive transactions towards reciprocity in generating deeper understandings of impact, and b) the importance of attending to impact emerging at different stages of a project. The paper concludes that designing for impact should aim to be a reciprocal process maximising learning for both participants and researchers.