Episode 14: Designing for Children's Rights with Jonna Tötterman

Fulfilling the needs of end-users and involving them in the design process are fundamental principles of design. How well are these ideals applied when designing for children? By law children have a right to participate and a right to be heard in matters that concern them. However, it seems that there is a systemic bias excluding kiddos from our society to restricted areas, “kids’ corners”, that are not really designed with children in mind. The reality is that children use most of the same tools, services and apps adults use. When children’s perspectives are not taken into account as part of the design of our everyday things, we can’t know what kind of experiences children are exposed to, nor protect them from harmful exposures. In this episode we talk about the role of legal design in designing for children with Jonna Tötterman, a Design Lead and Co-Founder of D4CR, Designing for Children’s Rights Association. Jonna tells us why children should be considered as a stakeholder group by default, and how to make a kid participate in a design sprint. We also discuss why children’s ability to navigate in the digital world is often overestimated, and why apps and other digital tools should be designed in a way that kids can use them without adult supervision.