Co-design processes involve, basically, prioritizing during the design the perspective of those people that any services, products or policies will serve. It relates to the relatively lengthy process of engaging members of a specific community from the beginning to the end of a project.
The co-design engagement involves treating these community members as equal collaborators and valuing their input valued for a final product that meets everyone’s needs. This approach leads to successful, sustainable, and impactful outcomes.
A few features of co-design processes are:
- Person-centred. It uses ethnographic methods to understand the experience of a service from the client’s point of view.
- It’s focussed on developing practical solutions to issues facing individuals, families and communities. In that sense, prototyping is one of the main methods used to tests any product and its potential impact.
- Its processes are inclusive and draw on many perspectives, people, experts, disciplines and sectors. The goal is to find real, workable solutions to complex issues, that’s why during the process it is important to draw on many perspectives. Codesign processes thrive when real listening and dialogue can occur across unlikely alliances.
Regarding these features, it’s important to mention that for an effective co-design process it’s very important to have a cultural perspective, with timelines and processes that respect cultural protocols. Tools like interpreters, clear explanations of technical and legal language, and a wide variety of feedback methods are relevant in that sense.
Co-design methodologies have a better societal impact when they demonstrate the need for recognition of difference, multiplicity and diversity among decision-making power agents, from relationships of solidarity and trust.
