Fiction as a resource in participatory design

In this paper we are exploring the relation between participation and fiction with the aim of investigating how fiction can be a resource for participatory design and can shed more light on the participatory value of fiction. We describe how fiction has been taken up and conceptualized in contemporary design research and argue that different strategies for applying fiction may be seen as a resource for evoking various forms of participation. Furthermore this paper present three case examples of participatory prototyping, that makes use of play or games as a way to engage participants with a particular use of make-believe. We discuss these cases with the purpose of identifying how participatory design can benefit from a more articulate notion of fiction.