Playing Cards and Drawing with Patterns

Making design has become a challenging activity, in part due to the increasingly complexity of the context in which designed solutions will be inserted. Designing iDTV applications is specially demanding because of the scarce theoretical and practical references, problems that are inherent to the technology, and its social and pervasive aspects. In this paper, we investigate the design for iDTV by proposing three participatory practices for supporting a situated design and evaluation of iDTV applications. A case study reports the use of the practices in the real context of a Brazilian broadcasting company, aiming at developing an overlaid iDTV application for one of its TV shows. The practices were articulated in a situated design process that favored the participation of important stakeholders, supporting different design activities: from the problem clarification and organization of requirements to the creation and evaluation of an interactive prototype. The results suggest the practicesâ usefulness for supporting design activities, indicate the benefits of a situated and participatory design for iDTV applications, and may inspire researchers and designers in other contexts.