What is Co-design?
Co-design is a collaborative design-led style of working which brings together stakeholders from different walks of life with diverse skillsets to work together towards a common goal.
When individuals from such different backgrounds collaborate, each opinion is important in the creation of something new. The purpose of co-design is to discover unique perspectives and to include user and stakeholder opinions in decision making during the design process.
What is a Co-design Space?
A Co-design space is a physical setup designed to assist & encourage creative problem-solving through collaborations. A space consisting of all resources, and technologies that can aid each stage of the design process; from initial brainstorming to ideation, prototyping, branding, fabrication, and eventually a market launch. Facilities like Co-working, Makerspace, Incubator, and Accelerator, etc.; must be present under one roof available at single-point access to make your ideas come to life. An all-inclusive space like this can help the designers and creators of today become the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. For an aspiring designer/creator who is familiar with basic production techniques and already knows how to make the first prototype (MVP); a Co-design setup makes it easier for them to find resources to make their ideas a tangible reality and test them in real-time.
Co-design Spaces in light of the Pandemic
The pandemic has created a prominent work from home culture that continues to grow in the coming times. What remains unchanged, is the efficiency of teamwork by being in a physical space where creativity and ideas thrive. No kind of virtual meetup can take away the productivity of being in-person and working to achieve a common goal. Co-design Spaces can help keep this alive. A physical space where individuals and teams come to build on their ideas thus creating a culture of idea execution and skill-building through making. Below are a few benefits that Co-design Spaces can offer to your design process:
Benefits:
Process > Jugaad
It is crucial that the process-based production line takes over the ever-prevalent ‘Juggad’ mindset to make Designs globally accepted. A Co-design Space enables users to follow the design process down to its last detail to come up with solutions to achieve their design goals. A process-based approach helps the outcome to be long lasting, thought out, and impactful in the long run.
Being around people better than you
The kind of person you become depends on the kind of company you keep. Visit a co-design space to be around that company. Come across like-minded people with a creative mindset that believe in the power of design and problem-solving.
Networking made easy
One tends to network better when present in the physical vicinity of the person. Co-design spaces are filled with designers and design teams working on their ideas/projects and constantly looking for reviews and opinions of others to make their design process better. Get introduced, talk about ideas, build something together, and create networks that last a lifetime. Come across students, professionals, startups, or just hobbyists and explore the true meaning of CollabTherapy.
Open innovation
In a world of increasingly complex problems, collaboration is vital. The motivation to work together to create ideas in areas such as healthcare, education and governance is more pressing than ever. These problems require distinct stakeholders to come together and actively create, in order to improve the systems and services. Open innovation refers to the discussion of ideas publicly and sharing/pooling of resources to help make the ideas a reality. Based on trust and empathy, the culture of open innovation is readily seen in a co-design space as individuals understand the importance of originality in the design process. This culture helps promote a mindset toward innovation that is contrary to the secrecy and silo mentality of traditional corporate research labs.
Promote trust and growth
With the existence of open innovation, trust and growth come naturally. Designers can build off of each other’s skillsets and technologies to come up with new solutions. A basic understanding of the value of intellectual property exists that helps build trust amongst co-designers and co-creators.
Self-sufficient and skill-building
The design thinking process teaches skills that enable designers to take an idea from a sketch to a tangible product. Including skillsets such as ideation, prototyping, manufacturing, one can truly become self-sufficient to take their ideas from thought to reality. With access to techniques such as woodworking, rapid prototyping, design thinking, and more, designers that use co-design spaces have a high potential to expand and develop their skillsets.
Your design shrine
With all resources available under one roof, co-design spaces are like design shrines and collaboration hubs for idea development and execution with the help of multiple stakeholders.
Conclusion
The challenges our world faces are too great to be tackled by a single field. More than inviting designers or engineers into the process, users, customers, patients and other stakeholders, need to be brought in as active co-designers, to confront the big issues and develop ways to improve their experiences or co-create a new solution.
Visit www.collabtherapy.in today to become a member and get access to all resources to design, develop, prototype, test, fabricate & seed your ideas.