Cracking open co-creation: Categories, stories, and value tension in a collaborative design process

Abstract

In this paper we show how stories and categories help to frame and express values in a car accessory design process. We consider how a group of designers plan two co-creation workshops through categorising participants in ways that impact upon the subsequent process of design. We then describe how two stories emerge during the design process, additionally structuring design discussion through linking 'past particulars' -experiences and behaviours that the co-creation process reveals -with 'imagined particulars' -stories that place specific actors, objects and relations into an imagined context. We propose a key function of stories within this collaborative design process as holding value tension, allowing contrasting values to coexist together. Highlights• The role of stories in framing collaborative design practice • The management of contrasting categories and values through discourse • How stories represent 'value tension' in design processes • The performance of design as the negotiation of value tension

Advancing an understanding of design cognition and design metacognition: Progress and prospects

“…The success of design work will, therefore, be crucially dependent on the designer's effective operationalisation of a frame that provides sufficient room for creative exploration whilst also providing sufficient constraints to enable a focused solution to progress. McDonnell (2018) discusses a case study whereby a lack of 'frame discipline' led to impoverished design work, whilst Lloyd and Oak (2018) provide evidence for how a clearly articulated and systematically co-developed problem frame can enable a design team to structure and anchor collaborative activity to achieve productive design development.…”

Service innovation through resource integration: An empirical examination of co-created value using telehealth services

“…First, by presenting evidence of active resource integration within ‘simple’ service activities to realise service benefits, we challenge assumptions about ‘passive’ forms of citizen participation and their classification as co-production (Osborne et al., 2016; Voorberg et al., 2015). Second, by focusing on citizens who would otherwise be invisible to scholars fixated on operationalising binary definitions of ‘active’ participation in formal arrangements, we highlight that studies of ‘active’ involvement in co-designing and co-initiating service innovation (Bate and Robert, 2006; Lloyd and Oak, 2018; Sangiorgi, 2015) need to consider novel methods to integrate the study of co-production with value co-creation processes. This is especially important for addressing the democratic deficit (Fung, 2015) due to the absence of service users from shared service innovation initiatives because participation is physically challenging and also because public services have pursued inputs (to governance) through citizen engagement; perhaps they could learn from marketing and also seek insight on service user experiences throughout the service process (for service innovation).…”

Constructing shared professional vision in design work: The role of visual objects and their material mediation

“…Following in Goodwin's (2000) footsteps, scholars of design work used ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to explore the endogenous methods by which professional vision is constructed (Lymer, 2009;Luck, 2012b;Oak, 2009). This involves fine-grained analyses of verbal practices performed by competent members of the profession, including their turn taking at talks (McDonnell & Lloyd, 2009), conversations with visual objects (Luck, 2007), and use of analogies (Murphy, Ivarsson, & Lymer, 2012), stories (Lloyd & Oak, 2018), and gesture (Luck, 2014).…”