Co-design
The collective creativity of designers and people not trained in design, applied throughout the whole process. It is a specific case of co-creation.
What it’s for
It gives people tools to express and propose ideas from what they know about their own experience.
Principles
Experts in their experience
People contribute what only they know.
Tools for expression
The design team prepares materials so anyone can create.
From the start
People take part from the “fuzzy front end,” while what to design is still being decided, before there is a solution to defend.
How it’s done
The design team prepares materials so anyone can create.
People create from their own experience.
Together, everyone interprets what was made and decides what to design.
Applications in design
When to use it
At the start of the project, while you are still defining what to design.
Avoid
Inviting people to co-design when the solution has already been decided.
Don’t fall for it
Designing the sessions is also design: test the materials beforehand.
Connections
Authors and works
- 2008
Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders and Pieter Jan Stappers
Defined co-design as collective creativity applied across the whole design process, a case of co-creation.
- 2002
Elizabeth B.-N. Sanders
Proposed moving research toward participation, with tools that let people create.
Sources
Original sources
- Sanders, E. B.-N., & Stappers, P. J. (2008). Co-creation and the new landscapes of design. CoDesign, 4(1), 5–18. View source: Sanders, E. B.-N., & Stappers, P. J. (2008)
- Sanders, E. B.-N. (2002). From user-centered to participatory design approaches. In J. Frascara (Ed.), Design and the social sciences: Making connections (pp. 1–8). Taylor & Francis.
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