DOI: 10.18848/2325-1328/cgp/a251 ISSN: 2325-1360

Co-Design Is Key to Understanding People in Holistic, Human-Centered Design Settings

Erica Mason, Eko Pam
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Prominent design thinking and service design authors promote a collaborative and inclusive design setting called co-design. Co-design is reframed in this article not simply as a collaborative activity but as a central practice for generating situated and experiential knowledge about people within design processes. Co-design involves organizations working directly with the public on projects in ways that activate diverse perspectives, experiences, and skills, allowing designers to develop a more nuanced understanding of how different people interpret and respond to product or service problems. This research explores how graphic design has not engaged deeply with its audience as co-design suggests in Perth, Western Australia. The study employs qualitative methodologies, including ethnography, autoethnography, and practice-led research to examine two graphic design studios in Perth and one service design studio in Melbourne. The aim is to establish an overview of prevailing graphic design methodologies and assess whether creative practices change when holistic human-centered design processes are introduced. The findings indicate that local graphic designers both desire and require a shift toward more holistic approaches to practice. Designing without direct engagement with people is understood here as being based on assumption, whereas co-design enables the development of what is reframed in this article as relational insight, meaning knowledge that emerges through interaction and shared experience. The research further identifies visual storytelling as an effective method for interpreting complex ideas within co-design environments. However, the study also finds that designers in Perth have not yet established consistent co-design methodologies for projects of varying scales, particularly smaller projects that begin with a request for a single artifact.

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