What is the difference between participatory design and co-design?

Participatory design is the older tradition, rooted in Scandinavian workplace democracy, emphasising the political right of those affected to shape design. Co-design (or co-creation) is a broader, often more recent term for collaborative design with stakeholders, sometimes without the same political commitments.

How does co-design differ from user research?

User research studies people to inform decisions made by designers, whereas co-design positions those people as active collaborators who help generate and shape the design itself, sharing some of the creative agency.

Participatory and Co-Design

Participatory and co-design involve the people affected by a design as active partners in the design process rather than as subjects to be studied or consumers to be served.

Definition

Participatory and co-design is the practice of involving prospective users and other stakeholders as active co-creators throughout the design process.

Scope

This topic covers the Scandinavian tradition of participatory design rooted in workplace democracy, methods and tools for engaging non-designers (workshops, generative toolkits, prototyping, and probes), the shift from designing for to designing with people, and the politics and ethics of participation. It spans applications from workplace systems and public services to community and social design.

Core questions

What distinguishes designing with people from designing for them?
What methods and tools enable non-designers to participate meaningfully?
What political and ethical commitments underpin participatory design?
How is genuine participation distinguished from tokenistic consultation?

Key theories

From user-centred to co-creation: Sanders and Stappers chart a shift from designing for users toward co-creation, in which people are treated as experts of their own experience and given generative tools to participate actively in design.
Workplace democracy and participatory design: Ehn's Scandinavian tradition grounds participatory design in workers' rights to influence the technology that shapes their work, framing design as a democratic and political as well as a technical process.

History

Participatory design originated in 1970s and 1980s Scandinavia in collaborations between researchers and trade unions over workplace computerisation, emphasising democratic participation. It later spread internationally and broadened into co-design and co-creation across products, services, and social innovation, while debates about the depth and politics of participation continued.

Debates

Empowerment versus appropriation: Whether contemporary co-design retains participatory design's commitment to genuinely sharing power, or whether co-creation has been absorbed into commercial practice as a means of extracting value from users under the language of participation.

Key figures

Elizabeth Sanders
Pelle Ehn
Toni Robertson
Jesper Simonsen

Seminal works

sanders2008
ehn1988
simonsen2013

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between participatory design and co-design?: Participatory design is the older tradition, rooted in Scandinavian workplace democracy, emphasising the political right of those affected to shape design. Co-design (or co-creation) is a broader, often more recent term for collaborative design with stakeholders, sometimes without the same political commitments.
How does co-design differ from user research?: User research studies people to inform decisions made by designers, whereas co-design positions those people as active collaborators who help generate and shape the design itself, sharing some of the creative agency.