What is the purpose of this toolkit?

This toolkit offers a complete guide to Talisman, an innovative approach to co-design with participants’ own objects. This toolkit provides suggestions for pre-session and in-session design activities that make use of participants’ materials. It specs out what the overall process might look like; walks through examples of sequential design activities and pre-session activities; and makes note of key things to consider while facilitating the co-design sessions using participants’ materials.

The process and activities outlined in this toolkit are meant to be self-directed and to seamlessly integrate into communities’ existing design sessions and practices.

Who is this toolkit for?

This toolkit is for community organizers, researchers, educators, designers, tinkerers, or anyone who is currently facilitating or plans to facilitate co-design sessions with participants.

This toolkit may be useful to you if you are interested in brainstorming ideas or solutions to topics and questions that are pertinent to you and the communities where you live and work. So that you have enough time and attention for everyone to share their stories and ideas, we recommend a group size between 4-15 participants, which is also a common group size in co-design.

When should I use Talisman?

While this toolkit can be adapted or appropriated at any stage of the design process—whether in its entirety or in part—we envision this toolkit would be most useful in the beginning stages of the design process when a group is looking to refine their question or topic.

The process and design activities outlined in this toolkit may be useful to you whether you plan to hold one co-design session or regularly scheduled sessions across a longer period of time. You may also choose to run through the process and design activities just once or many times.

While we recommend sticking to the sequence of activities outlined in this toolkit, you are more than welcome to pick and choose which activities to incorporate into your sessions, when, how often, and for how long. Depending on what you hope to achieve, it may be helpful to repeat or omit certain activities.

Where can Talisman be used?

Whether your sessions are in-person, remote, or hybrid, we envision the process and design activities outlined in this toolkit can be adapted to a variety of settings.

Why “Talisman”?

Talisman is the word often used to refer to objects with “magical” powers. Personal objects can often hold deep, emotional significance. Whether it is a memento that represents a cherished memory, or an everyday object that is tied to an experience there is “magic” in every personal object. Hence, the name of the approach and toolkit.

How can I make the most of Talisman?

While holding your sessions, it may be helpful to consider doing the following: