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Article History

Received: 21 August 2024

Accepted: 24 November 2024

First Online: 27 December 2024

Declarations

:

: The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

: In this study, we conducted workshops with human participants. Participation in the workshops was voluntary and consent to participation and publication could be withdrawn without facing any adverse consequences at any point during the research. The participants were not compensated for their participation. Prior to the workshops, the participants received and signed a consent form detailing the purpose of data processing, contact details (implementing institution, research leader, workshop leader), legal basis of data processing, and declaration of their rights, fulfilling requirements of Art. 7 GDPR for voluntary and informed consent. In this consent form, the research project was described as follows: “Execution of a design thinking workshop with three fictitious use cases to evaluate the method”. Therefore, the information the participants received before the workshop was deceptive, however, we debriefed participants after each session, as described in our Methods section. The recordings of the workshops and interviews were transcribed, participants’ names were exchanged for a unique identifier (“P1”–“P18”) and all identifying information was removed. Original data was deleted immediately after it was transcribed. To safeguard participants’ identities, the consent forms were only processed by the first author. They are stored digitally in a password-protected and encrypted folder on the first author’s laptop that only the first author can access. Ongoing communication was maintained with the participants after the workshops to address any questions or concerns participants might have had. In conducting this research, consideration has been given to minimizing potential harms to participants, ensuring that any identified risks are justifiable considering the potential benefits. In participant selection, diversity and non-discrimination was an important consideration. Every person who indicated their wish to participate, was able to participate. Informed consent involved the right of self-determination in so far, as each participant had the possibility to withdraw their consent to participation and recording at any point. The principle of justice guided our research, ensuring equitable treatment of all participants. Technical measures to ensure participants’ privacy included the choice of a communications technology that enabled end-to-end encryption during the online workshops and interviews, a private environment to conduct the in-person workshops and interviews, as well as above-described measures to ensure safe storage of the consent forms and anonymization of personal data in the transcripts.