As part of the D4CR – Designing for Children’s Rights organization, Chris Lindgren, Jonna Tötterman and myself were invited to share some of the thoughts behind the 2.0 update of the Designing for Children’s Rights Guide Principles for the most honorable Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.
When we design for children, we design both for the present and for the future. Childhood experiences have an impact on children, which translates into long-term effects on the population and society—our collective future. Excluding children from our thinking is a systemic bias and we work to change that.
The Designing for Children’s Rights Guide
The work with the D4CR – Children’s Design Guide started with the Talkoot conference in 2018 and has since been something of great importance to me. During 2022 we launched a big update of the first iteration of our 10 principles. I highly recommend checking out the website to read them in full.
The 10 Principles for Designing for Children’s Rights
Design for Inclusion
1. Gather and respect children’s views
2. Everyone can use
3. Use communication children can understand
Design for Play & Learning
4. Allow and support exploration
5. Encourage children to play with others
6. Create a balanced environment
Design for Safety & Sustainability
7. Keep children safe and protected
8. Do not misuse children’s data
9. Help children recognize and understand commercial activities
10. Design for future
Petter Karlsson 
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