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This thesis explores co-design as an approach to designing products by involving nondesigners. Co-design’s strength lies in involving end-users in product specification and development, through creative co-creation in collaboration with designers and researchers, to create products that serve the people who use them. However, there is a gap in co-design research regarding how to practically apply co-design, in situations where online collaboration becomes a necessity. This thesis will therefore also investigate the aspects of distributed collaboration that are challenging, especially when conducting co-design activities, as they require a high level of interaction between participants. To explore this further this thesis asks this research question, “What influence does collaborative technologies and distributed collaboration have on a Co-design process, and how can the result of this process be formulated as guidelines for online Co-design?”. To best answer this, the thesis conducted three Co-design workshops in collaboration with a case company, where the participants had the task of exploring a problem area and designing a product. The authors facilitated these workshops, by guiding the participants in design activities, mediated through various collaboration technologies. The empirical material consists of observations, focus groups, interviews as well as generative methods, which are methods specific to Co-design. The analysis consists of five main categories that characterise a Co-design process, physical methods, levels of creativity, facilitation, Co-design values and phases, and user as expert. The first three categories are influenced heavily by the online aspect, whereas the others are not. The main elements that influence the Co-design process are technical problems that occur when participants use technologies, they are unfamiliar with. This affects how they express themselves creatively and how they understand the activities they are faced with in the workshops. Additionally, it was challenging for the authors to assist the participants, when they were not physically present. The resulting guidelines of this thesis focuses on creating a virtual space where participants are free to express themselves, while being supported by facilitators. This needs to be supported by technologies that enable real-time interaction between participants, while also fitting their technical ability |
