The field of Participatory Design (PD) has greatly diversified and we see a broad spectrum of approaches and methodologies emerging. However, to foster its role in designing future interactive technologies, a discussion about accountability and rigour across this spectrum is needed. Rejecting the traditional, positivistic framework, we take inspiration from related fields such as Design Research and Action Research to develop interpretations of these concepts that are rooted in PD׳s own belief system. We argue that unlike in other fields, accountability and rigour are nuanced concepts that are delivered through debate, critique and reflection. A key prerequisite for having such debates is the availability of a language that allows designers, researchers and practitioners to construct solid arguments about the appropriateness of their stances, choices and judgements.

To this end, we propose a “tool-to-think-with” that provides such a language by guiding designers, researchers and practitioners through a process of systematic reflection and critical analysis. The tool proposes four lenses to critically reflect on the nature of a PD effort: epistemology, values, stakeholders and outcomes. In a subsequent step, the coherence between the revealed features is analysed and shows whether they pull the project in the same direction or work against each other. Regardless of the flavour of PD, we argue that this coherence of features indicates the level of internal rigour of PD work and that the process of reflection and analysis provides the language to argue for it. We envision our tool to be useful at all stages of PD work: in the planning phase, as part of a reflective practice during the work, and as a means to construct knowledge and advance the field after the fact. We ground our theoretical discussions in a specific PD experience, the ECHOES project, to motivate the tool and to illustrate its workings.

参与式设计（PD）的领域非常多样化，我们看到了各种各样的方法和方法论。但是，为了增强其在设计未来交互技术中的作用，需要对这一范围内的问责制和严格性进行讨论。拒绝传统的实证主义框架，我们从设计研究和行动研究等相关领域中汲取灵感，以对这些概念的解释进行开发，这些解释植根于PD自己的信念体系。我们认为，与其他领域不同，问责制和严谨性是通过辩论，批判和反思而产生的细微差别的概念。进行此类辩论的关键前提是要提供一种语言，使设计人员，研究人员和从业人员可以就其立场的适当性提出扎实的论据，

为此，我们提出了一种“思考工具”，通过指导设计师，研究人员和从业人员通过系统的思考和批判性分析的过程，提供了这种语言。该工具提出了四个视角来批判性地反映PD努力的本质：认识论，价值观，利益相关者和成果。在随后的步骤中，将分析所显示特征之间的一致性，并显示它们是沿相同方向拉动项目还是彼此协同工作。无论PD的味道如何，我们都认为这种连贯性功能的标记表示PD工作的内部严格程度，而反思和分析的过程则提供了为其辩护的语言。我们设想我们的工具在PD工作的所有阶段都将是有用的：在计划阶段，作为工作中反思性实践的一部分，以及作为在事实之后建构知识和推动领域发展的手段。我们在特定的PD经验（ECHOES项目）中进行理论讨论，以激发该工具并说明其工作原理。