Design probes are a packaged set of prompts and data collection tools (e.g., journal, camera) that invite implementation partners and community members to capture data about their subjective experience, in a creative way that differs from survey responses and interviews. The materials generated from the design probe provide unique insights that can guide implementation planning and research.
In most circumstances, researchers and/or practitioners cannot experience what it is like to work or live in certain places or conditions. Design probes offer contextualized insights about lived experiences of individuals that may be impacted by an intervention or implementation effort. This “through their lens” experience enables researchers to understand spaces and experiences in ways they otherwise would not be able to. Design probes can also build rapport and engagement across teams that include researchers, practitioners, and community members. The interactive, tangible nature of design probes aim to delight research participants, offering a unique contribution to the implementation research method landscape.
Design probes have value at various stages of the implementation process, depending on their purpose. Some potential purposes of design probes are to stimulate creativity and engagement in design processes, understanding implementation context (e.g., barriers and facilitators), or to evaluate an intervention or implementation effort. It is important to make sure your stated purpose for design probes matches the stage of implementation. For example, a researcher may use design probes to stimulate creativity and engagement when developing or designing an intervention or process. In this case, it is important to use design probes early, while design activities are still underway.
This toolkit is for researchers and practitioners who want alternative ways to understand the perspectives and lived experiences of individuals engaging with an intervention or system, and how those experiences may inform strategies to implement that intervention within a system. For instance, one might use a design probe to “see” (through photographs taken by a participant) an office where a school-based therapist delivers therapy, or to read a participant’s narrative journal response about their experiences trying to use a standardized treatment in a community-based setting.
This toolkit includes a description of design probes, rationale for using them for implementation research, and general decision-making guidance on developing prompts for design probes and selecting elements to include in design probes. The toolkit also provides templates for creating design probe materials such as participant instructions and data collection prompts.
To be added soon!