Using design thinking to empower ethnic minority immigrant youth in their roles as information and technology mediaries

In the United States, almost one in nine people are foreign born (2010 U.S. Census). While diversity brings incredible richness, it also belies responsibility for helping immigrants participate fully in American life and culture versus isolating themselves within ethnic communities. Our past work funded by the U. S. Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation shows two-thirds of people use library computers to search for information on behalf of someone else (US Impact Study, 2011). These Information Mediaries (Infomediaries) tend to be young, non-white, non-native English speakers, suggesting ethnic minority youth are key for understanding the information needs of their respective populations, passing on needed information to otherwise hidden users (especially non-English speaking, non-library users). Our current research is over two phases supported by Microsoft and the Institute of Museum and Library Services we are employing design thinking (Brown, 2008, HBR, 2008), to study how ethnic minority youth serve as technology and information mediaries within their social networks. Our approach brings in perspectives from computer science, information science, design, information behavior, and uses research methods such as participatory design, action research, social networking analysis, rapid prototyping, and engineering. Our method integrates these perspectives and methods into a multi-day workshop format called “teen design days.”