The value of involving people as 'users' or 'participants' in the design process is increasingly becoming a point of debate. In this paper we describe a new framework, called 'informant design', which advocates efficiency of input from different people: maximizing the value of contributions tlom various informants and design team members at different stages of the design process. To illustrate how this can be achieved we describe a project that uses children and teachers as informants at

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... nt stages to help us design an interactive learning environment for teaching ecology. Keywords ChiktreE desi~low-tec~hi-teci informant, interactive learning environments, prototypes Permission to make digitiilhrd copies of fill or pwt of'this material for personal or classroom use is granted without f-provided that Ihe copies are not made or distributed for protit or conurrerciid advantage. the copyright notice, the title of the publication and its cktte appear, and notice is given that copyright is by permission of the ACM. Inc. '1'o copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute 10 lists. requires specific permission and/or fee CHI 97, Atksn!a (.;A LISA Copyright 1997 ACM O-8979 I -WJ2-9/97KJ3