Illustration with compass

The case for co-design

Co-design processes are intentional and action-oriented. In my own practice, I’ve seen co-design work as a powerful tool for focusing design, exploring new ways of doing things and capturing the voices and opinions of people who might not otherwise be heard in design or development. Much of my time is spent advocating for co-design to happen.

It is not consultation disguised under a sexy new name.

For those of you who remain unconvinced, I’ve compiled the lists below from Benefits of Co-design in Service Design Projects  (Steen et.al 2011), supplemented with ideas from The Value of Codesign (Trischler et al. 2017).

The immediate benefits of employing a co-design approach include:

  •        Better ideas with a high originality and user value
  •        Improved knowledge of customer or user needs
  •        Immediate validation of ideas or concepts
  •        Higher quality, better differentiated products or services
  •        More efficient decision-making
  •        Lower development costs and reduced development times
  •        Better cooperation between different people or organisations, and across disciplines

The longer-term benefits include:

  •        Higher level of satisfaction of, and loyalty from, customers and users
  •        Increased levels of support and enthusiasm for innovation and change
  •        Better relationships between the product or service provider and the customers

Want more?

Here are some other great resources to help you feel confident and build a case for co-design in you project.