Co-design is about engaging consumers and users of products and services in the design process, with the idea that this will ultimately lead to improvements and innovation. In Co-design those impacted by the proposed design are actively involved as partners in the design process. Co-design is being used in government, community and health sectors to extend traditional consultation methods and increase program reach and impact. Co-design approaches are also being used by corporates to engage internal stakeholders and customers, identify new service opportunities and improve existing ones.

Co-design is person-centred, using ethnographic methods to understand the experience of a service from the clients point of view.
Co-design asks service providers and service users to walk in the shoes of each other and to use these experiences as the basis of designing changes.
Co-design starts with a desired end rather than with what is wrong with the present service. In the process we look for ways to build backwards from the outcomes we are seeking. This not only stops us from getting bogged down in what is wrong, it also potentially leads to realisations that the problems we thought we were facing were not the real problems!
Co-design is focussed on developing practical, real-world solutions to issues facing individuals, families and communities. In co-design processes, prototyping is a method of testing whether ideas work in practice, and then reﬁning ideas until solutions that work for service users and providers alike are developed.
Co-design makes ideas, experiences and possibilities visible and tangible using a variety of media, graphic, kinesthetic and experiential methods. This helps to make solutions tangible and to make complex systems accessible across a range of people who may have different perspectives and knowledges about the system.
Co-design processes are inclusive and draw on many perspectives, people, experts, disciplines and sectors. The idea is to ﬁnd real, workable solutions to complex issues, so it is important to draw on many perspectives, to challenge orthodoxies, to question assumptions, and to draw in other possibilities.
Co-design processes thrive when boundaries are ﬂexible and silos are broken down, when real listening and dialogue can occur across unlikely alliances.

When ‘doing’ co-design, the role of the designer becomes one of facilitator: enabling participation, designing the right triggers, questions and scaffolds in which meaningful and effective participation can occur.

A typical co-design workshop has at least two different parts, one where the participant is instigated to speak about current experiences in order to start the conversation, and one where hands-on co-design exercises take place. The workshops generally involve a collection of materials, instructions for the co-design exercises, and considerable amounts of many people’s time. The data obtained from co-design sessions is generally visual and tangible. It can aid in presenting research findings in direct connection with users’ ideas and feelings in more engaging and understandable forms. The results of each session are debriefed with the team that was part of the process or that observed the sessions. The researcher captures everyone’s ideas on sticky notes and collects them on a board dedicated to each participant. Once the research cycle is finalized, the qualitative nature of the data allows the results of co-design processes to be analyzed with methods such as affinity diagramming or parallel clustering.

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