The concept of Participatory Design (PD) could be explained by its simple notion that those being affected by the final design outcome should have a say in the design process. This school of thought has its roots in the Scandinavia workplace democracy movement in the 1970s. Back in that time, PD researchers and trade unions initiated a range of collective projects to revisit the existing approaches of computerisation in the workplace and envision the future workplace and practices, supported by researches in designing the new computer based systems as required. 

In the recent development, the biennial Participatory Design Conferences (PDCs) launched in 1990 is an important platform to note. one the one hand, it was a dialogue between scholars and promoters on users’ involvement in the IT systems development. On the other hand, it then served as an example of the Scandinavian experience to other countries on adopting the theory and practice to respective places.  The PD research community gathers together regularly to discuss the collaborative, social, ethical, and political dimensions of design.  

Participatory Design and user-centred design are different concepts; the two terms are commonly conflated though. In user-centred design process, the users usually do not have a say in their ways of participation, while the democratic and emancipatory nature of participatory design emphasises people’s active participation in defining and discussing their ways of participation.