In much of the Western world, collaborative research undertaken by settler archaeologists readily lends itself, at least in part, to a continuation of the colonial project. Yet, against this backdrop, Australia's First Nations’ peoples continue to work with researchers and to drive systemic change in research practice. Community-engaged archaeology, defined here as codeveloped studies of ancestral places (following Schaepe et al. 2017), is directed to improving relationships between Indigenous peoples and archaeologists. Even so, the practice of archaeology with and for nonsettler communities remains underdeveloped with regard to institutional priorities and funding agency bureaucracies. Here, we (Mirarr Traditional Owners, Mirarr employees, and settler archaeologist researchers) reflect on these issues as part of our ongoing research on the ochres and bim (rock art) of the well-known Madjedbebe rockshelter in the Alligator Rivers region, Northern Territory, Australia.

Previous research on design thinking (DT) has focused mainly on describing and explaining observed phenomena rather than manipulating variables within the boundaries of its principles to assess the impact of these changes. DT, as a human-centric problem-solving and innovation method, has varying baseline exposure levels of nondesigners and novices when codesigning. This qualitative research shows how DT can be redesigned to accommodate the inclusion and engagement of novices and nondesigners in the codesign process with enhanced DT method applicability. DT novices and nondesigners are challenged in codesign engagements with others and need an intuitive method that leads them to the same or better design results as a classic DT method. A redesign towards an intuitive DT method for nondesigners puts special consideration on method language, efficiency and cycle time. A case study validates its qualification under real-life circumstances when codesigning with DT novices and nondesigners. Overall, the research demonstrates that DT with regard to nondesigners can be simplified and redesigned for efficiency and effectiveness.