Co-design
“Businesses and organizations expect that co-design will deliver specific benefits and that these will help them to realize specific goals in their projects. The wide range of benefits can include improving customers’ loyalty, reducing costs, increasing people’s well-being, and organizing innovation processes more effectively.”
Steen, M., Manschot, M., & De Koning, N. (2011). Benefits of Co-design in Service Design Projects. International Journal of Design, 5(2), 53-60.
Definition
Co-design involves an active and collective approach with the people who have a stake in the design.
Type
Design technique
Context
Co-design
The finished prototype from my co-design project. Our team created a re-design for a smart bus stop.
Procedure
Co-design is a general term. The goal is to include stakeholders within the process of creating new designs. While there are limitless approaches to this, some elements need to be planned so the time and resources spent is productive:
Involve the right people
Activities should be based on design goals
Have a clear, focused problem space
Include adequate materials
Use Case and Analysis
For an in-class project, I had a co-design session with a group of three other students. We each brought random art supplies with us to class. Our task was to use our materials to build a prototype which would improve students’ experience on campus.
Together, we brainstormed problems we all faced with traveling to classes. One of my partners brought an old shoe box with her which sparked an interest in re-designing bus stops. We combined our ideas to create an ideal solution for students who have to wait in the cold for unreliable buses. Using markers, post-it notes, and tape, we designed the shoe box to represent a smart bus stop. The picture shows our prototype, with heaters and route information displayed on the inside.
Co-design works best when the people involved get along and have the freedom to express fun, exciting ideas. My experience shows how innovative collective design can be when the people involved work together around a topic they can all relate to. While there might be limits based on the resources provided, this can still be a time-effective way of producing relevant solutions.