Design: Episteme and Doxa. Co-design as an Opportunity to Share Choices

This paper delves into the concept of co-design, a collaborative approach involving stakeholders in the conceptualization and design phases to understand diverse perspectives and jointly define project directions. Examining the relationships between co-design, Design Thinking, and user-centred design, the paper emphasises distinctions in their goals and methods. It addresses potential biases in co-design processes, providing strategies to mitigate analogical relations, cognitive effort minimization, and emotional influences. Epistemological reflections highlight the efficacy of participatory methods in generating theoretical hypotheses while underscoring the need for evidence-based validation. The article explores co-design’s applications in speculative design and ludo-didactics (game design). In speculative design, co-design aids in framing problems and generating plausible contextualizations, while in game design, participatory processes, particularly playtesting, enhance the exploratory and refinement phases. The paper suggests avenues for further research, emphasising the strategic placement of Co-design processes in project phases, considering potential biases, and exploring its application in disruptive innovation contexts.Co-design, defined as “processes of creative participation” (Steen, 2013) is an approach that includes a group of stakeholders — “any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organisation’s objectives” (Freeman, 1984, p. 49) — during the conceptualization and design phase of a concept, artefact or service with the aim of understanding the needs of each people and jointly defining the direction of a project. The co-design activities are structured in such a way as to transform all the participants into design partners. People with different skills and operational levels will work together. Through a vo-design process they will be able to convey and align their ideas towards a common goal. The aim is that of defining some of the criteria that will affect the future development of the project.