In today's rapidly changing landscape, the need for human(ity)-centric design opportunities is more critical than ever. Societal challenges are urgent and affect everyone, including politicians, NGO’s, citizens, policymakers and other government officials, marketers and business professionals, designers and researchers. Understanding and addressing these challenges is difficult because no single stakeholder nor organisation is solely responsible. Everything is interconnected and constantly changing, resulting in challenges being neglected and stakeholders being unable or unwilling to make important decisions.

Participatory design or co-design can help out as it offers a way to ensure that the interventions, products, services and systems we develop truly respond to the problematic situation at stake. Participatory design actively involves the people involved in a societal challenge, and the relevant communities in a co-design process. This collaborative process acknowledges the expertise, experience, influence and insights of those who will ultimately have a role or will be affected by the designs. By including diverse perspectives co-design aims to create more inclusive, effective, and people- or nature-centred design directions.

Learning the co-design principles, not only enhances the quality of design outcomes but also fosters empathy, collaboration, and a deeper understanding of the people involved. For both designers and non-designers, these skills are invaluable in addressing complex, problematic situations and fostering innovation/change/transformations in various fields.

This training is co-organised with BIS Publishers. The publisher has made available two ebooks that you will be using throughout the training: ‘Design Play Change’ and ‘The Co-Design Canvas’ written by Wina Smeenk, the tutor of this training. You will actively use and practise the Co-Design Canvas via Miro. With additional theory and case examples, the training aims at adding both a practical and theoretical layer to the books and the Canvas, on the practice hand by showing how to put the tools into use in stakeholder contexts, and on the theory hand by going into some depth into design science from underlying references.

For whom?
This training is suitable for anyone involved in addressing societal challenges with a co-design process, including designers, project leaders, project developers, policymakers, health care innovators and community leaders. Additionally, professionals from non-design backgrounds who seek to foster collaboration, empathy, and people-centeredness in their work will find this training beneficial.

You will follow a series of four live sessions. Each session of 120 minutes is a mixture of workshop, open discussion and debate and lecture format. You will be able to discuss, exchange feedback, and work on the Co-Design Canvas together. Learning with and from your peers is one of the guiding principles of our learning activities.

All lessons are online, and live sessions will take place via Zoom.

Schedule live sessions
Session 1 - Monday March 3, 2025, 14:00 - 16:00h CET
Session 2 - Monday March 10, 2025, 14:00 - 16:00h CET
Session 3 - Wednesday March 17, 2025, 14:00 - 16:00h CET
Session 4 - Monday March 24, 2025, 14:00 - 16:00h CET