Primary Research Method Two, Codesign

The second primary research method I conducted was a codesign session. I wanted to grasp a greater understanding of what individuals desired in the interior of their cars through a hands-on activity. The only guidance I gave them was the prompt for the activity and that they had 20 minutes to complete the activity.

Prompt

Design Your Dream Car for a Connected Family Experience.

Recruiting Process

To recruit my participants, I reached out to my family members who recently moved Columbus with their two young children and their two dogs. In total, I had one family of two adults and two children partake in my codesign session.

Date of Codesign Session

Monday, September 14, 2026 at 6:30pm.

What Is Included in the Kit?

Below is the list of resources my participants received to respond to the prompt.

Individual Kit

(1) 8.5 x 11-inch piece of paper (1 per person)

(1) 7 x 11-inch pieces of paper (1 per person)

Included in Everyone's Kit, they share

Blocks

• 20 Orange Small Rectangles
• 10 Blue Tall Rectangles
• 14 Red Wide Rectangle Bricks
• 9 Yellow Tall Cylinders
• 15 Blue Squares
• 10 Green Short Cylinders
• 2 Red Arches
• 2 Yellow Lemons
• 2 Green Tallest Logs
• 6 Orange Triangles
• 15 Yellow Squares

(30) Light Brown Wooden Breads

(1) Spoolo Ribbon

(1) Roll of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Duct Tape

(1) Toll of Ohio State Tape

(1) Pink container of assorted beads (plastic container)

(1) Bag of assorted feathers

(7) Balls of green/teal yarn bunches

(1) Blue fuzzy fabric

(1) Colorful purple + other color rock collection fabric

(1) Dark blue fabric swatch

(2) Bundles of bat fabric

(1) Bag of warm fuzzies and stickers

(5) Colored string

• Hot Pink
• Light Pink
• Orange
• Green
• Blue

(1) Hot pink post-it notepad

(1) Lime green post-it notepad

(1) Pad of colorful paper

(1) Bag of yellow and green pipe cleaners

(1) Roll of scotch magic tape

(1) Pair of scissors

(2) Paper bags

(1) Polkadot tissue paper

(9) People figures

• 5 Adults
• 1 Middle Age Child
• 3 Little Children

(5) Chunky highlighters

• 1 Blue
• 1 Purple
• 1 Yellow
• 1 Green
• 1 Orange
• 1 Purple

(1) Word bank of car features

• Prompts provided
• Write your own

(1) Word bank of car activities

Roles

The roles included the facilitator, the timekeeper, the notetaker, and the recorder. I was in charge of all four roles at once.

Facilitator

The role of the facilitator is to run the session and make sure everything runs smoothly.

Facilitator Script

Instructions for Codesign

Hello! My name is Alivia, and today I will be leading a co-design session as part of my senior capstone project at The Ohio State University, in partnership with Honda.

A co-design session is an opportunity for you and me to work together to bring ideas to life. Today, you will be designing your dream car interior using the materials provided.

Instructions

• You will have 20 minutes to Design Your Dream Car for a Connected Family Experience
• You will begin by designing individually. If you would like to collaborate with others, you may, but collaboration is not required.
• Your design must stay within the 17 × 11-inch paper provided.
• Use the materials provided to express your ideas in whatever way works best for you. There are no right or wrong answers—be creative and have fun!

Does anyone have any questions before we begin?

Before we begin, do I have your consent to record this session? (Each participant asked)

You may begin! Have fun and be creative!

Timekeeper

Kept track of a 20-minute timer.

Recorder

I recoded the audio from the session using the camera app on my iPhone.

Notetaker

I took notes of what I was seeing during the session

Pilot Test

To pilot test my codesign activity, I recruited my sister. I gave her the same material as I would my participants and gathered feedback after.

At the conclusion of the pilot test session, the only feedback I received was 20 minutes was too long, my sister did it in 7 minutes. Although, I decided to keep the session time limit to 20 minutes because I knew my sister was in a rush in that moment.

The Co-Design Session

Participant One, Adult One

Participant Two, Child One

Participant Three, Adult Two

Participant Four, Child Two

Key Takeaways

• Ventilated Seats are very important
• Children imagine the interior of their dream car differently than adults
• The way children comprehend a prompt differs from adults. For example, the adults were very detailed with what they wanted in the car as they used slips of paper that had written words on it. Reflecting on this session, I should have used more pictures to allow the children and adults to comprehend imagery and words on the same level.

Reflection

After running this codesign session, I realized how children's imagination differs from adult's imagination. For example, the types of features individuals want in their car differs from a child's perspective to an adult's perspective. Overall, I feel this activity allowed me to grasp a better understanding of what children would want in their dream car to create a connected family experience compared to adults. Let's just say there was quite the difference!