The overall ambition is to modernize and enhance the Scandinavian tradition of democratic participation in ways that fit current society and information technology. Today every citizen is a user of IT, but public IT systems are often designed for workers and administrators rather than for this public. The PIT centre brings the citizen into focus as a participant in design and in use of IT. Inspiration for such participation is found in grass-root movements and on-line communities.

The research questions address IT support for new forms of human participation and cooperation. How do we identify and encourage such new forms? How can they be supported through improved design methods and IT platforms? How can we understand the possibilities and problems of this development?

The PIT centre builds on the participatory design tradition, but adds to earlier research by combining a focus on aesthetics and art with the more traditional usability and usefulness of participatory design and human-computer interaction. In PIT, these research traditions meet in research through design processes, which focus on specific empirical cases.