12 Jun 2007 0508H

McDonalds using moms in participatory design

Who needs personas when you can engage the real people in participatory design. Plus, they become advocates for the product. Of course, six moms at a time is slow going.

Two more links about this, at the Trib and USA Today. Now the spin on it doesn’t seem to be really per se participatory design so much as it is a PR exercise, sadly.

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3 responses to "McDonalds using moms in participatory design"

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14 Jun 2007 2258H

David Armano writes:

A pretty smart move getting real Mom’s involved. Wonder of the restaurants have time to prep…

16 Jun 2007 0641H

Susan Burnett writes:

I recently wrote McDonalds about including sugar-free/caffine-free sodas in their soda machines. All their caffine-free drinks are full of sugar. They told me point-blank that they don’t take suggestions from the public. They have marketing professionals and their restaurant managers for ideas. I spoke to the manager of our local McDonalds and he indicated that he received his instructions from the corporate office and he had to follow company guidelines. I’m glad that McDonald’s has brought outsiders in for another perspective. I hope it results in some improvement.

16 Jun 2007 0859H

Gino writes:

Large corporations lack the agility that smaller ones have mostly due to layers of bureaucracy and fear of legal exposure. But it’s surprising what grassroots campaigns can do to impact local chains and therefore cause an issue to get escalated. If you feel strongly about the issue, just as with any issue, consider organizing around it and begin taking your campaign to the managers who can then take action on it, and then, if that doesn’t work, you can take it to the next level.

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