Emma Blomkamp
Is it co-design or, rather, how much co-design is there? These questions, deceptively simple, sit at the heart of methodological debates within participatory and systemic design. As co-design expands across sectors, geographies and disciplines, it is increasingly invoked to describe practices that differ markedly in their depth of participation, the extent of designerly methods employed, and the scale at which collaboration occurs. Rather than adjudicating a single authoritative definition, this paper proposes a multi-dimensional framework, Shades of Co-Design. It enables practitioners and researchers to characterise and communicate the nature of their co-design practice across three lenses: scale of engagement, depth of collaboration, and extent of design.
The framework draws on established participation theory, co-design scholarship and systemic design literature, synthesising these into a practice-facing tool grounded in constructivist epistemology and inclusive rigour. It is particularly attentive to calls for epistemic pluralism and design justice, recognising that diverse forms of co-design can coexist without requiring a universal standard.
The paper contributes to the RSD15 theme of systemic design pluralism by offering a framework that supports pluralism-without-relativism: practitioners can locate their work honestly, communicate its character to collaborators and commissioners, and reflect critically on what might be dialled up within their constraints. It responds to a gap in the literature, where existing frameworks tend to be single-axis or binary, ill-suited to the complexity of practice in low-resource, cross-cultural and politically-charged environments.
Keywords: co-design, participatory design, systemic design, pluralism, participation, design practice