Co-design

Abbreviation

• Community design
• Collaborative design
• Cooperative design

What it can do

• A new way for businesses to innovate and create competitive advantage 
• A way for the public sector to make sure their services deliver what the public wants and needs
• A more effective solution to a problem by working with the intended project audience
• A more authentic, holistic result

What the design community has to say about co-design

Discussions held via the Design Council LinkedIn group unless stated otherwise

Design done with product / service users and frontline staff 

Good ideas can come from anywhere, so why not from the user / patient / passenger / citizen you’re going to be serving. Mat Hunter

Co-design is working with people, giving them some tools (possibly just paper and pencil) and getting their view of what they would a product or service to be. It's not the end of the process but it provides invaluable insight. Other design research activities such as observation and ethnographic research play a role too but the main point is getting real people who will be users of what you are making, involved. Clive Grinyer via Facebook

Co-design emphasizes the collaborative aspects, involving the client/user as equal partners, especially in their role as "domain experts" in the area of what's wrong with the way things are. The designers offer up options and alternatives not necessarily meant to be a solution, but rather to elicit a response from the clients/users, which in turn help clarify the "root cause" problem. Filippo Salustri

Without ownership from the participants (and recipients), the "co" element, however it functions or is perceived, is unlikely to be fully effective. Where we are perhaps grappling with how to define it is in the commercial world where the financial factors have a necessary bearing on the creative alliance. Would it be useful to also define what needs to be in place for co-design to be effective (A designed alliance)? Liz Wren

Co-design is more than just consulting users – it’s about getting their ACTIVE involvement in exploring, developing, and finalising the final solution to their problem - regardless of whether this is a product, service, etc. By getting hands-on will end users not only define the problem, but understand the process of delivering the final solution, and thereby will buy-in and embrace the change more easily. James Rock

I think that an important aspect to explain in order to define co-design are the levels of influence in a colaborative project. When people are invited to make an opinion, it does not necesarily means that is taken into account, and the level of influence is relatively low; when people are asked to participate, interact and colaborate in the building of a design process, then there is a high level of influence. The sentence is not 'you help me', rather than 'we colaborate each other'. Pablo Calderón

As one activity in a collaborative/participatory design session we asked end users of a future online tool to sketch their personal ideal interface. Two great things about this; it's quick for us, and it's fun for them. With careful questioning the design team then establish existing patterns of behaviour, and the expectations which users hold for the future tool. These expectations then become inputs to help the design team in their creative process. I don't think they limit innovation in any way? For us co-design was a quick efficient way of uncovering insights which may have been more difficult to get at using other means, it's fun, and it helps with engagement and adoption of new designs. Michael Tiffany

For me co-design is working with the intended project audience to engage them in the design process alongside the professionals with the objective of delivering a more effective solution to a problem. At worst it’s just an exercise to bring the audience along on the designers' journey, but at best it delivers unexpected and new ways of thinking that would never emerge from a more traditional design methodology. Paul Davies via Facebook

Many ideas, especially service ideas, vary hugely in their implementation depending on how engaged front-line service staff are (e.g. airline, restaurant...) so designing with the deliverers is a key to successful quality. Mat Hunter

Co-design. A process by which expert suppliers, expert users, and expert innovators work together to understand problems, visualise alternatives, prototype and then implement change. Sean McDougall

By designers 

End user > Designer < Stakeholder Matthew Richard Stone via Facebook

Co-design is an user-shared design process where the designer acts as a catalyst. It could be said to be an extreme experiment of user-centred design. Gabriel Patrocinio via Facebook

Co-Design is an updated term for Participatory design. It involves designers working in collaboration with interested stakeholders in the design development process. Matt Sinclair

good 'ideas' can come from anywhere or anyone but how an idea is translated and articulated strategically, creatively and holistically is key to ensuring results of multiple user / stakeholder input in 'co-design' projects do not result in a Frankenstein outcome, is probably the key to successful co-design/ co-creation. Maxine Horn

In its simplest form, co-design applies to the collaborations which make projects happen inside and between groups of creative professionals. But as new business models emerge, co-design also applies to intentionally-collaborative ventures across creative disciplines and to designers becoming partners in the creation of a product. The latter is, for me, less about designers letting the client in and more about clients involving designers much earlier in the process than the conventional supply model allows. Lydia Thornley

Co-design is obviously so named because it comes from Collaborative or Co-operative design. And good 'ideas can come from anywhere but not everywhere'. So there is a great deal of skill required by the designer to steer the collaborative design process by framing the problems and using well practiced creativity to develop and stimulate solutions. It can work well if you respect that the user is as integral as designer, though perhaps with different skills. Rob Maslin

A key issue remains as to how decisions are made. Is this democracy with the designer facilitating, or is the designer 'first among equals' and so responsible ultimately for the quality of the outcome? Mat Hunter

In theory co-design can involve a neutral facilitator with designers and others working as equals, though in practice this rarely happens. Even where it does the designer (or the designer's client) will generally hold the ultimate decision making power, which means it cannot truthfully be described as an equal (or democratic) approach. As far as ownership is concerned, there is no requirement within the co-design process to grant any intellectual or physical ownership of designs to those who take part, though of course stakeholders may feel they have moral or emotional ownership of an idea. Matt Sinclair

Co-design is active and receptive. I agree that good design ideas can come from anywhere, but designers have become the leaders, visionaries and facilitators, using co-design as a tool. Skill is required to get stakeholders and users who are willing to co-design, and who also have a valuable contribution to make. I disagree with Rob that you have to use well practiced creativity. The creativity in co-design can be untested, innovative, holistic and open to free thought. Co-design is primarily about making, listening, learning and communicating all in one, its a tool that we can choose to use, or not. The co- part for me is stands for collaboration with experts, often users are the experts, not the designers and definitely not the just the decision makers. Designers should be held accountable for the quality of the outcome since they are taking the lead. Lisa Fuller

Personally I believe that co-designing using your clients as co-designer doesn´t ever lead to real innovation. If you want to innovate successfully you absolutely do need to understand your customers, existing and future. But observing them, talking with them, letting them lead you, only leads to more of the same, and small improvements on existing things.
Real innovation often comes from keeping your customers in mind, and really think seriously, with the best people around you about how you might change their behaviour.
Whatever the definition of co-designing with users-consumers, it should also indicate that it can be used basically only for improvements on, new versions of EXISTING PRODUCTS - SERVICES. Mirko Van den Winkel

In order to make businesses and public services better 

In the private sector, co-creation is the practice of collaborative product or service development and presents a new way for business to create competitive advantage: In co-creation, where developers and stake-holders are working together, it has the potential to support the product and service innovation & development process. Richard Arnott

I would say in our 'Designing Communities' project for Dott Cornwall, co-design has encouraged residents living in a deprived community to take ownership of an opportunity. It has been an inclusive process but ownership rather than outcome has been key. In our New Work Cornwall project, also for Dott, co-design has been about bring a mix of people together - experts, participants, designers and decision makers - to look at collaboratively designing improvements to a challenge. Outcome is all important here. It is too early to say whether co-design will deliver improvements and innovation though - we obviously hope so. Either way, co-design does create change because it's a do-with not do-to approach. Robert Woolf

Which makes it different from design ... but also part of design 

I see design as a project-oriented method, in which one of its key steps is to hear those who order, who will finally use, who are already using ... I do not understand who is giving or creating a new name for this step. I think it is wrong to add another name to the design. We have so many. I think more important is to face and discuss the various projective methods in design, rather than seeking to create new names. Otherwise how is it possible design to exist without dialogue with the client or user? How is it possible? ... Design exists because there are people and objects (in its broadest sense). Then the permanent exchange of information is in the process-oriented in both directions. This act is an integral part of design. Nothing more, (but very important) ... "co-design" is neither more nor less than one part of the project-oriented method. Enough. Who really is designer, works for people, for humanity. Transforms living into something better. How is it possible to design exist without people, without consulting, without their help to test the products produced? Nuno Sa Leal

Co-design isn't really that different to the way design has always been done, it just presents a 'new' way of understanding the customer by bringing them inside the design process rather than leaving them on the outside in surveys and focus groups. It's still the designer (or the designer's client) who gets to decide whether to listen to what users are saying or go in another direction. Matt Sinclair

The "co" part of design doesn't have to happen for the design of everything, so it isn't built into the general design process. The general design process has a "gate" in it at which point one decides whether the "co" parts of design must be called upon; this decision is based on the nature of the situation that designing will somehow resolve. It therefore makes sense to distinguish design and co-design. I like the notion of "ownership" as being a marked of co-design situations. Filippo Salustri

Am I missing something here, but this discussion sound to me a little like how many angels can stand on the head of a pin? We seem to be no closer, as a community to agreeing a definition of design (though I think Sir George Cox has nailed that) let alone new terms such as co-design. For me, until we have clarified what a designer is/does, we're navel gazing. If someone says they are a writer, despite the fact that almost everyone can write, we all sort of know what they do - though they may be a journalist, poet, scriptwriter, author etc. Similarly architects, lawyers, cooks... Somehow we've yet to neatly define our profession - and we are an industry of communicators! And maybe that's because the bit that we tend to be paid for - or is most highly valued - has changed over the years from mark maker (commercial artist) to creative thinkers. Maybe, we need to decide that there are some aspects of what we do that just isn't feasible to include in the definition. I'm happy not be be described as a designer if what I do is management consultancy or brand strategy, once we collectively have made up our minds. Is that wishful thinking? And by the way, the co- bit for me is a given, I've yet to discover a project that doesn't have clients and markets! Mike Abrahams

What next? 

In the bad old days we started with designer centred design, and then we were enlightened and we moved to user-centred design. And then we got even more sophisticated and we started to design with, not just for. And now we're thinking about co-production. It's not even enough to design things together. We now must produce them and run them in a collaborative way. Our Chief Design Officer, Mat Hunter

What it's not

Maxine Horn asks: “what relationship people felt there was between crowdsourcing, open innovation, co-creation, open source and co-design?” and considers some of the risks and opportunities.

Open innovation is fast becoming a popular way of corporates seeking external innovation and ideas to supplement their in-house R & D departments. This is now starting to stray into uncomfortable territory for the creative industries particularly as the terms of business surrounding IPR and traditional fee for services models are being challenged. Some brands have taken to using 'crowd-sourcing' in the form of customer based ideas competitions. These are not good for the professional community. It's a whole new can of worms to conjure with now that open-source that was contained in the software domain and open innovation that was contained in the technology domain - has strayed very quickly into the industrial design sector, digital media sector and now is heading for graphics. IPR and remuneration are critical issues for creative industries in these largely unchartered waters. Take a look at www.creativebarcode.com - which has just launched an App and open-ideas protection system as a response to these needs. It has put in place both a protection and ethical framework around open innovation to at least safeguard a trading model for professional creative industries - particularly the design sector. The design sector model is changing faster than many would like - and it’s going to get a bit more uncomfortable unless creative industries pull together and state their trading terms to enable them and potential clients to engage with each other under these new models. Maxine Horn

Crowdsourcing an 'open call' is made for solutions to a problem; anyone who is interested can submit ideas. Often (though not always) there will be discussion and voting by the crowd. There is generally little collaboration between the client and the crowd. Ownership of the final solution resides with whoever originally made the call for ideas. Open Source the owner of a piece of IP relinquishes his/her rights and allows others to modify it. Ownership resides with whoever has made the modifications, though sometimes the original owner will apply restrictions. Co-Creation an umbrella term which includes any scenario where consumers or stakeholders engage with an aspect of design. It includes co-design and crowdsourcing as well as mass customisation and even bespoke design. Matt Sinclair

Useful references 

Maketools.com 

A short film about co-design by social design agency thinkpublic

Dott Cornwall: design methods for engaging local communities in co-designing and the Big Society

Co-designing for dementia: The Alzheimer 100 project

Co-Creation and the new landscapes of design. Sanders, E.B.-N. and Stappers, P.J. (2008) CoDesign Journal

Co-Creation and the new landscapes of design: watch a presentation by Liz Sanders at IIT Design Research Conference 2008

Open p2p design, a project which is exploring how peer-to-peer networks influence open design processes.

Demos: Making the most  of collaboration an international survey of public service co-design. 2008

Creative barcode 

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