A brief introduction to co-design

Understanding Co-design Principles
📌 Co-design is a practice where knowledge, skills, and resources are connected to execute a design task, emphasizing collaboration.
🤝 It challenges the traditional view by equally valuing all skills and experiences within a group, rather than centering the designer's expertise.
👥 Co-design places the people affected by design decisions at the center, empowering them to take an active part in the process.

Importance and Application of Co-design
🌍 Co-design is crucial for solving complex social, political, environmental, educational, and technological issues where no single entity holds complete knowledge.
🏥 It is increasingly applied in public services like healthcare, libraries, Community Gardens, and developing housing solutions.
🧠 The process generates new knowledge as individuals combine specialized and personal insights to generate and test new ideas.

Role of Professional Designers in Co-design
🛠️ Professional designers shift from being sole problem-solvers to acting as design enablers.
🧠 A design enabler helps build the capacity of others to participate or lead the design process.
🔗 Enablers motivate people, support connections, and help mobilize collective capabilities through developing skills and relationships.

Roles of Design Enablers
🗣️ The Mediator devises tools and processes to help others engage in design thinking, reconciling differences and identifying shared values.
🔗 The Broker connects different parties and negotiates access to necessary resources like funding or expertise for the design process.
🎓 The Educator builds others' skills and confidence to use design language and navigate formal design processes.
🚀 The Activist takes initiative for action, providing targeted support, like engaging specific groups or setting up structures for future gains.
⭐ The Champion advocates for co-design, coordinates knowledge sharing, and provides inspiration to move the design process forward.

Key Points & Insights
➡️ Co-design fundamentally shifts the design paradigm by equally valuing the skills and experiences of all participants, not just the professional designer.
➡️ Professional designers should adopt the role of design enabler, focusing on building capacity in others to lead design efforts.
➡️ Key enabler roles include Mediator, Broker, Educator, Activist, and Champion, each serving specific functions to facilitate collective problem-solving.

📸 Video summarized with SummaryTube.com on Jan 08, 2026, 21:06 UTC