How Co-design Drives Design Excellence

What does it mean to be a designer?

When I first started working as a design professional, I understood it was my job to come up with ideas, solutions, and answers. Clients, partners, collaborators would come to us because they had problems and needed our expertise. However, in the past few years, as I tried to incorporate more user-centred design approaches into my design practice, I started to wonder more about my role as a designer.

During my short, non-dramatic soul searching, I joined a one-hour webinar by Don Norman on 21st Century Design. I found myself very intrigued by what he said: “Designers are the final piece of the puzzle”. The field of Human-Centred Design should focus on the needs and capabilities of the people who will benefit from the design results. Community members are co-designers and design professionals are facilitators and mentors.

Norman believes this is the new future of design, one that involves collaborative work between people who do the design and people who will be affected by the design.

Luckily for me, I got to experience Norman’s idea of the new future of design first-hand, when I was given the opportunity to co-facilitate some co-design sessions for a product idea we named , Capy, together with our UX lead, Luke.

About Capy

The idea was that Capy would be a homework and mental health tracking app that helps parents and children prepare for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE). It was born from our team members’ passion to find a solution to the problem of academic stress in young children in Singapore.

Capy targets busy working parents who lack time and resources to monitor their children’s studies regularly and their children will be sitting for PSLE in the next one or two years.

The current version of Capy which will be soon released for closed beta testing.

The prototype version of Capy, still under its working title Study Buddy. The prototype version of Capy was used extensively in our user interviews and co-design sessions.

What is co-design?

Co-design, also known as co-creation, is a creative research method in which you convene a group of people you are designing for to bring them into the design process. At the heart of it, co-design is designing with users, not for them. It is not just about listening to your users, it is about empowering them to create alongside you.

The co-design process as illustrated by designer Kelly Ann McKercher of Beyond the Sticky Notes

Why co-design?

As a human-centred design studio, empathy is a big part of 55 Minutes.

When our team started exploring ideas for Capy, we recognised the bond and relationship between our user target groups—parent and child—would be the most important element to the product. Everyone in the team has been a child, but not everyone has had the experience of being a parent. As parenthood comes with its own unique set of needs, challenges, and responsibilities, it is very difficult for most of the team members, who are non-parents, to empathise with the users; this is why we decided to co-design with our users.

What did we learn from our co-design sessions?

After two 90-minute co-design sessions with two selected parents, here’s what we learned:

1. Co-design is useful in all design stages, not only in the ideation stage

With Capy, we ran our co-design sessions during the test-and-refine stage of the human-centred design process. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, we ran the sessions like how we would run a design critique, but online. The results that we got led to an iteration of our prototype. Not only did it help us gain a deeper understanding of parents as our users, but it also led to insights that generated new ideas for our next possible phase.

Infographic created by Jeffrey Chou based on Liz Sanders’ lecture and workshop on co-design. Co-design could happen and is useful in any design stage.

💡 Tip: When co-designers propose new features, take time to understand why they suggested them. Listen to what needs they are trying to solve and discuss if there are better ways to solve them. This way, the results of your co-design process can feed into most stages of the design thinking process, not just during the ideation phase.

(Left) Capy’s task tracking feature on the original prototype only had a card view which displayed the tasks added in the forms of cards. (Right) During the first co-design sessions, our co-designers proposed a timeline view to complement the card view. The timeline view would allow parents and children to visually estimate the duration of each task.

2. Co-design helps you test features and get feedback quickly

Each session can be kept short yet effective! We managed to conduct rapid cycles of “test and redesign” for Capy, therefore reducing the time needed to move towards an MVP (minimal viable product). By eliminating unnecessary features, we reduced the cost needed to develop and build our product.

💡Tip 1: To get the most out of your co-design sessions, design a structure in which each co-designer is allowed time to evaluate or play with the prototype — they can give sharper feedback and suggestions without feeling rushed.

💡Tip 2: Before each session, send your co-designers the documents needed for the discussions. This can be short write-ups about the project or digital prototypes. It is important to prepare your co-designers beforehand by letting them think and reflect on the discussion materials.

Task analysis by subjects was also a feature that was proposed by our co-designers. We managed to get the task analysis prototype out before the second co-design session to get additional feedback from our co-designers.

3. Co-design lets you discover unique perspectives and new insights

We learned that involving people from diverse backgrounds with different lived experiences is one of the most important keys to a successful co-design. A “one-size-fits-all” approach to co-design cannot serve the diverse needs of those who experience complex problems.

For Capy, we recruited two parents as co-designers. To ensure Capy as a product is as inclusive as can be, we selected participants from different genders (female and male), races and cultures (Chinese and Indian), and economic backgrounds.

💡 Tip: Create a safe space for your co-designers by making sure all their struggles and concerns are heard. It is important to validate their experience, thoughts, and feelings, especially when they’re part of a minority group. By doing so, you might discover new perspectives and insights from people with different backgrounds.

4. Co-design brings an emphatic approach to design thinking

Empathy is an important step in design thinking because it is a skill that allows us to understand and share the same feelings that others feel. However, sometimes, the shoe just do not fit.

Co-designing with parents has helped us learn how to abandon our ego — the assumption that we know what is best for them and their children. It also helps us practise humility — the willingness to admit our shortcomings when our ideas are criticised.

On top of that, we get to learn how to ask better questions, dig into unexpected areas, and how to be better listeners and observers in general. Most importantly, spending time with our co-designers has given us a sincere desire to come up with the best solutions to their problems.

💡 Tip 1: During user interviews, take note of participants who are very aware of, and eloquent about, their needs and pain points. These same participants are usually passionate about finding ways to improve their problems and expand their potential solutions too.

💡 Tip 2: When possible, recruit these past interviewees or other research participants as your co-designers. Opt for participants you’ve talked to before, so there’s a degree of familiarity between you and your co-designers. That level of comfort will help draw out deeper insights from them.

Is co-design the new future of design?

The co-design sessions we had for Capy only added up to about three hours in total. That’s not a long duration but it definitely left a lasting impact on us as a team. We had a taste of what is possible when we design with our users, putting them at the centre of our design processes, and empowering them to make a difference.

As Don Norman said, meaningful social changes and innovation can only happen when there is a collaboration between people who do the design and people who will be affected by the design. Is co-design the new future of design? We may not have the answers now but the team at 55 Minutes is excited to see what co-design can bring to our future projects!

So, what’s the next thing you’re going to co-design?

Thanks to Luke for his contributions to this piece 🙂

—

Adeline is a senior designer at 55 Minutes. She is committed to creating impact through design, whether it’s driving business success, enhancing social outcomes, or improving the overall user experience.