Abstract
The increased recognition that minoritised people should play a more significant role in the research and design of technologies aimed at them is welcomed. Though Interaction design research has begun to address the needs of neurodivergent people, the epistemic framing of the research aims, and practical co-construction of technologies are still infrequently from a lived-experience perspective. This work sought to address some of these concerns through a series of interaction co-design workshops with ADHD adults framed as technological design for wellbeing. This paper reflects on our adaptive use of Soma and Co-design workshop methodologies to account for and speak to the lived experience of ADHD in our participants and researchers. By foregrounding co-design of the co-design process, we demonstrate how methodological adaptation is not a matter of accommodation alone but a route to deeper agency, creativity, and equity. We contribute facilitation guidelines for co-design workshops with and for ADHD participants.
Keywords
Co-Design, ADHD, Soma-Design, Reflexive Facilitation
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2190
Citation
Brundell, P., Thorn, E., Castle-Green, T., Tennent, P., Martinez Avila, J., and Ito-Jaeger, S. (2026) Co-Designing Co-Design Workshops with ADHD Adults, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.2190
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Co-Designing Co-Design Workshops with ADHD Adults
The increased recognition that minoritised people should play a more significant role in the research and design of technologies aimed at them is welcomed. Though Interaction design research has begun to address the needs of neurodivergent people, the epistemic framing of the research aims, and practical co-construction of technologies are still infrequently from a lived-experience perspective. This work sought to address some of these concerns through a series of interaction co-design workshops with ADHD adults framed as technological design for wellbeing. This paper reflects on our adaptive use of Soma and Co-design workshop methodologies to account for and speak to the lived experience of ADHD in our participants and researchers. By foregrounding co-design of the co-design process, we demonstrate how methodological adaptation is not a matter of accommodation alone but a route to deeper agency, creativity, and equity. We contribute facilitation guidelines for co-design workshops with and for ADHD participants.