Co-creation and the new landscapes of design

Figures & data

Figure 1. The current landscape of human-centered design research as practiced in the design and development of products and services.

Figure 2. The front end of the design process has been growing as designers move closer to the future users of what they design.

Table 1. A snapshot in time of traditional and emerging design practices.

The traditional design disciplines focus on the designing of ‘products’ …	… while the emerging design disciplines focus on designing for a purpose
visual communication design	design for experiencing
interior space design	design for emotion
product design	design for interacting
information design	design for sustainability
architecture	design for serving
planning	design for transforming

Figure 3. Classical roles of users, researchers, and designers in the design process (on the left) and how they are merging in the co-designing process (on the right).

Table 2. Four levels of creativity.

Level	Type	Motivated by	Purpose	Example
4	Creating	Inspiration	‘express my creativity’	Dreaming up a new dish
3	Making	Asserting my  ability or skill	‘make with my  own hands’	Cooking with a recipe
2	Adapting	Appropriation	‘make things my own’	Embellishing a ready-made meal
1	Doing	Productivity	‘getting something done’	Organising my herbs and spices

Figure 4. Tools and techniques support the user taking the role of an experienced expert. This photograph shows a presentation technique with a cartoonesque TV-frame that can help shy people to express their opinions more readily (see van Rijn and Stappers 2007).

Figure 5. This photograph shows nurses co-creating a concept for ideal workflow on a patient floor. Note that the toolkit components are round, helping them to think in terms of activities, not rooms. This session preceded the one shown below (Sanders 2006c).

Figure 6. This photograph shows nurses co-designing the ideal future patient room using a three-dimensional toolkit for generative prototyping (Sanders 2006c).