Co-Design and Design (Group 7)
Fiona Harper
Product Design

Definition:
“Co-design is a method. It is a way of processing through a problem or design scenario.” (Sanders and Stappers, 2008).
Co-design is about designers working alongside people from various backgrounds and professions, not necessary in design, in order to add value and improve the design process. This collaboration aims to: gather a range of insights, benefit all those involved, creates ‘tangible outcomes’ (Papeschi and Kollmann, 2010) and ‘sees everyone as designers’ (Fuad-Luke, 2007).
Co-design aims to provide solutions for the future by addressing today’s worldwide environmental and social issues such as sustainability, crime and healthcare. As such, designers are evaluating ‘behavioral change in people’ (Kingsley, 2009). The innovative ideas generated by co-designing benefit everyone involved.
In order to co-design, designers must conduct themselves in a professional manner; adhering to an ‘ethical code of practice’ (RSA, 2009) especially when dealing with peoples livelihoods. Such practice includes showing empathy (Kingsley, 2009), patience, consideration and support.

[Image 1]: ‘The co-design loop ensures there is a continuous design cycle’ – (Fuad-Luke, 2009)

History
Co-design has became very popular in the millennium era with Google hits raking up at 1,700,000 in 2007 (Sanders and Stappers, 2008) however it is ‘not a new phenomenon’ (Ballie, 2009)
“Early pioneers, such as Richard Buckminster Fuller, Victor Papanek, Christopher Alexander and Ivan Illich, believed that design could and should, be able to integrate commercial needs with those of society and the environment.” (Fuad-Luke, 2007)
Co-design originated in the 1970s in Northern Europe (Sanders and Stappers, 2008).During this time ‘co-design’ was titled ‘participatory design’ as it remains in some places today . In fact some sources believe that the start of ‘participatory design’ was ‘underway by the late 1960s’ but was ‘not widely recognised’ (Carroll, 2006). This participatory approach is about ‘user as partner’ (user has more influence in design process). In 1970s America they were more focused on ‘user as subject’ where their role was more focused on researchers examining their users in order to identify opinions/ insights).These two perspectives relating to generating ideas are said to ‘influence one another’ in the design process today (Sanders and Stappers, 2008).
The 1971 ‘Design Research Society’ conference, held in Manchester, England, was significant in shaping the co-design ideology. One of the speakers Nigel Cross wrote a book compiled of presentations from the conference entitled ‘Preface to Design Participation’ (1972) he made a number of very interesting points that designers today should pay attention to. He wrote that this ‘man-made’ world we live in, we are faced with growing problems, problems that could be avoided if we involved society in our ‘decision making’. He also briefly spoke about the ‘need for new approaches to design’. But he was very realistic in his views that this ‘participation’ in the design process was not going to ‘take place before the end of the century’. (Sanders and Stappers, 2008)
Cross’ findings from the conference were right, it has taken a longtime for co-design to be properly talked about within the design world. There are a variety of reasons for this, for instance, some people struggle to think of themselves as being creative, especially in the business world (Sanders and Stappers, 2008).The internet has also had an effect on co-design as people are more connected in sharing information on the concept of co-design through social networking sites such as Twitter.
Designers today have to think about various global factors that affect the world. Co-design gives designers the chance to think about the world they are designing from a different perspective. International companies use co-design as a marketing strategy to make customers feel they are adding their personalities to certain brands such as Volvo; allowing customers to alter the designs of their cars.
Sanders and Stappers (2008), lead thinkers in co-design believe that the future of co-design ‘will become highly valued’  explaining that co-design meanings can bring ‘cross-cultural communication’. As co-design develops it will become ‘far more diverse’.

Relevance
As the title suggests, ‘Co-Design’ has fundamental links to design. Without design, co-design would not exist. Co-design requires design thinking, design professionals, and real, honest people to make it work. Designers are constantly thinking up new ideas and products, however co-design takes on a different approach to idea generation. It allows designers to break free from the confines of the studio and step into the real world, tackling real life scenarios and problems. If design thinking wasn’t there as a basis to guide these stakeholders then the outcomes would be very different.
Co-design takes advantage of designers skills, such as their ability to think in a visual way, being realistic, facilitating and adapting designs and roles in the group depending on the situation. Designers also have to understand that outcomes in the co-design process do not always work out as planned, situations change, peoples opinions differ, you have to be aware of challenging situations and to be positive when criticism is made.
Co-design works well with other design fields such as service design, empathic design, product design.‘Think Public’ – a social design agency have made a short film entitled ‘the story of co-design’ (2008) which explains co-design with a touch of service design, through a simple story about an island’s struggle with an unused bus service. The problem being ‘the bus service had’t been designed it has simply happened’. The bus committee members were concerned and attempts were left unresolved so they decided to hire a designer. The designer was able to look at the whole service and come up with new ideas by working with the bus committee and using strategic methods, rapid prototyping, different ways of idea generation; in the islands case a council event to gain insights from locals, where all stakeholders were involved. The insights gathered at the event heavily influenced the final design outcome, because the people were listened to and their views were taken on board. The bus service was very successful and sustainable as a result. The message in the video was that designers can use co-design in the many fields that they may find themselves designing in, e.g. healthcare.
‘Co-design is changing the roles of the designer…the implications of this shift for the education of designers and researchers are enormous’ (Sanders and Stappers, 2008).

Image [2]: ‘Speakability Event’ (aware4aphasia, 2009)
The Image shown represents a name tag from a Dundee University student involved in co-designing with ‘Speakability’ -an organisation set up to help those who have suffered a stroke or brain injury.

Bibliography

Ballie, J. (2009). Co Everything: Defining Co-Design for Fashion & Textiles. [Online slideshow] Available: http://www.slideshare.net/considerateclothing/co-everything-defining-codesign-for-fashion-textiles. [Accessed: 30/09/2010].

Carroll, J.M. (2006). ‘Dimensions of Participation in Simon’s Design’, Design Issues, vol 22, no. 2 pp3-18 Available: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/desi.2006.22.2.3. [Accessed: 03/10/2010].

Cross, N. (1972). Design participation: Proceeding of the design research society’s conference 1971, Academy editions, London UK. In E. N. Sanders and P. J. Stappers (Ed.) (2008). Co-creation and the new landscapes of design, CoDesign, 4: 1, 5-18. Available: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/15710880701875068. [Accessed: 30/09/2010].

Dott Cornwall. (2010). Design Methods. Available: http://www.dottcornwall.com/design-matters/design-methods. [Accessed: 30/09/10].

Fuad-Luke, A., (2007)a. ‘Re-defining the purposes of (Sustainable) Design: Enter the Design Enablers, Catalysts in Co-design.’ In J.Chapman and N.Gant (Ed.) Designers, visionaries and other stories pp. 41-55. [e-journal] Available through: Dundee Library database: http://site.ebrary.com.libproxy.dundee.ac.uk/lib/dundee/docDetail.action?docID=10210555. [Accessed: 30/09/2010].

Fuad-Luke, A., (2009)b. Co-Design Loop [Image 1] Available at: http://www.fuad-luke.com/ [Accessed: 30/09/2010].

Harper, F., (2009). Speakability Event [Image 2] Available at: http://aware4aphasia.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/speakability-event/dscf0141/ [Accessed: 06/10/10].

Kingsley, C. (University of Dundee) 2009. ‘Co-Design and the use of Stories to Enable Empathy.‘ 8th European Academy Of Design Conference – 1st, 2nd & 3rd April 2009, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland. Available: www.ead09.org.uk/Papers/029.pdf [Accessed: 30/09/2010].

Papeschi, P. and Kollmann, J. (2010). Beyond Co-design. How open collaboration formats can enhance your design process. [Online slideshow] Available: http://www.slideshare.net/johannakollmann/beyond-codesign-how-open-collaboration-formats-can-enhance-your-design-process. [Accessed 30/09/10].

Sanders, E. B. -N. and Stappers, P.J. (2008). Co-creation and the new landscapes of design, CoDesign, 4: 1, 5-18. Available: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/15710880701875068. [Accessed: 30/09/2010].

The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, (2009). ‘Six challenges for design education’. Available: http://www.thersa.org/about-us/media/press-releases/six-challenges-for-design-education. [Accessed: 30/09/2010].

Thinkpublic, (2008) The Story of Co-Design Available at: http://vimeo.com/3143657 [Accessed: 05/10/10].