@inproceedings{wilson-etal-2025-participatory,
title = "Participatory Design for Positive Impact: Behind the Scenes of Three {NLP} Projects",
author = "Wilson, Marianne and
Howcroft, David M. and
Konstas, Ioannis and
Gkatzia, Dimitra and
Abercrombie, Gavin",
editor = "Atwell, Katherine and
Biester, Laura and
Borah, Angana and
Dementieva, Daryna and
Ignat, Oana and
Kotonya, Neema and
Liu, Ziyi and
Wan, Ruyuan and
Wilson, Steven and
Zhao, Jieyu",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on NLP for Positive Impact (NLP4PI)",
month = jul,
year = "2025",
address = "Vienna, Austria",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2025.nlp4pi-1.21/",
doi = "10.18653/v1/2025.nlp4pi-1.21",
pages = "252--263",
ISBN = "978-1-959429-19-7",
abstract = "Researchers in Natural Language Processing (NLP) are increasingly adopting participatory design (PD) principles to better achieve positive outcomes for stakeholders. This paper evaluates two PD perspectives proposed by Delgado et al. (2023) and Caselli et al. (2021) as interpretive and planning tools for NLP research. We reflect on our experiences adopting PD practices in three NLP projects that aim to create positive impact for different communities, and that span different domains and stages of NLP research. We assess how our projects align with PD goals and use these perspectives to identify the benefits and challenges of PD in NLP research. Our findings suggest that, while Caselli et al. (2021) and Delgado et al. (2023) provide valuable guidance, their application in research can be hindered by existing NLP practices, funding structures, and limited access to stakeholders. We propose that researchers adapt their PD praxis to the circumstances of specific projects and communities, using them as flexible guides rather than rigid prescriptions."
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Participatory Design for Positive Impact: Behind the Scenes of Three NLP Projects
%A Wilson, Marianne
%A Howcroft, David M.
%A Konstas, Ioannis
%A Gkatzia, Dimitra
%A Abercrombie, Gavin
%Y Atwell, Katherine
%Y Biester, Laura
%Y Borah, Angana
%Y Dementieva, Daryna
%Y Ignat, Oana
%Y Kotonya, Neema
%Y Liu, Ziyi
%Y Wan, Ruyuan
%Y Wilson, Steven
%Y Zhao, Jieyu
%S Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on NLP for Positive Impact (NLP4PI)
%D 2025
%8 July
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Vienna, Austria
%@ 978-1-959429-19-7
%F wilson-etal-2025-participatory
%X Researchers in Natural Language Processing (NLP) are increasingly adopting participatory design (PD) principles to better achieve positive outcomes for stakeholders. This paper evaluates two PD perspectives proposed by Delgado et al. (2023) and Caselli et al. (2021) as interpretive and planning tools for NLP research. We reflect on our experiences adopting PD practices in three NLP projects that aim to create positive impact for different communities, and that span different domains and stages of NLP research. We assess how our projects align with PD goals and use these perspectives to identify the benefits and challenges of PD in NLP research. Our findings suggest that, while Caselli et al. (2021) and Delgado et al. (2023) provide valuable guidance, their application in research can be hindered by existing NLP practices, funding structures, and limited access to stakeholders. We propose that researchers adapt their PD praxis to the circumstances of specific projects and communities, using them as flexible guides rather than rigid prescriptions.
%R 10.18653/v1/2025.nlp4pi-1.21
%U https://aclanthology.org/2025.nlp4pi-1.21/
%U https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.nlp4pi-1.21
%P 252-263
Markdown (Informal)
[Participatory Design for Positive Impact: Behind the Scenes of Three NLP Projects](https://aclanthology.org/2025.nlp4pi-1.21/) (Wilson et al., NLP4PI 2025)
ACL