My understanding of how to employ narrative inquiry in the design process comes from Natasha Jones. In her article titled “Narrative Inquiry in Human-Centered Design: Examining Silence and Voice to Promote Social Justice in Design Scenarios” defines narrative inquiry as a form of qualitative research that emphasizes the importance of lived experiences in research. She states that narrative inquiry “is a method of collecting, analyzing, and reporting data. This data collection, analysis, and reporting all rest on a focus on participants’ telling of narratives (participants’ voice), the co-construction of the meaning of narratives by the participant and researcher, and the presentation of findings in a narrative form” (Jones 479). In other words, she is arguing that to engage in responsible design, we designers need to view the people we are designing for as collaborators in the process of design; as them being subjects with their agency rather than research objects.
One way of doing this kind of work is through the feminist theoretical framework of silence and voice. Of silence and voice, Jones writes: “Silence can broadly refer to not being heard or understood, not being included or represented, being ignored or delegitimize, not being valued, or being actively oppressed and marginalized” while of voice she states: “consideration of inclusion can often be characterized as voice, pointing to the idea that allowing space for voice eliminates oppressive silences (Jones 478). By reducing people to just being users we are effectively eliminating their agency and their ability to articulate their needs and wants within the design process. By practicing narrative inquiry through a feminist theoretical framework of silence and voice, we may go beyond undoing the already existing silences towards creating systems based on collaboration and social justice.