Skyline
Design and Research Methods
line decor
  HOME  :HONOURS PROJECTS :: 13-Mar-2017     
line decor
 

 An outline tutorial. Next: Starting out on CBCD

What is Community-Based Co-Design?
 

The issues faced in designing information and communications technology (ICT) solutions for development are “wicked”, in the sense that we only really understand them once we have a solution (!?). Even worse, we don’t know for sure when we have a solution to the design problem since there is no certain way to know when to stop, and there is no clear right or wrong answer. Every problem and its solution is essentially a once-off.
Eastern Cape Village

Community-Based Co-Design (CBCD) is a way of tackling such problems. We move iteratively from one imperfect solution to a better one. We have to learn what the issue is so we humbly ask our users (“community”) to help us to learn about the issue sand help us with the design.

If something does not work it means we have more learning to do. This is the epistemological position of a Pragmatist.

Research & Development Method

  

Community-Based
Our underlying approach is experimental computer science (ECS) employing action research (AR). Experimental computer science has always involved building computing artefacts and we regard AR as more of a paradigm rather than a specific methodology — CBCD is our method. The intention of AR is to achieve a dual aim of:
  • action intervention and
  • research learning
So in our case of ECS + AR we get:
  • intervening with communities and then
  • reflecting on the experience of using our system
We emphasize that AR is a democratic method where all parties are engaged in mutually learning about an issue, a design space and possible solutions.

We deal with groups of people rather than individuals, this is quite different from many design situations encountered where the focus is on the individual user. This emphasis also implies that we need to remain sensitive to major cultural differences.
We develop ways of entering into design conversations with people who do not have technical skills, but are knowledgeable on their own needs.  They may not actually know what we can offer and hence a cyclic approach of learning from one another is needed.

It is important to recognize that there is no one community with whom we work. We cannot assume homogeneity, for example there will be groups such as the elders, the youth, women, migrants, people with disabilities, and so on. Each of these has to be given a voice in design.

Fit for Purpose

Co-Design

The standard engineering design aim is build systems that are “fit for purpose”. This assumes that technologists can understand the users when they state their needs. These methods deal with “customers” from the same background as the designers and they are not adequate for ICT for development (ICT4D). They assume that customers are similarly educated and from the same culture who can express their needs in a language that CS designers understand.

Designers have to work with users as co-designers, where both groups, together, identify the problem that needs to be addressed, the means of tackling the issues and then together decide on measures of success.

In many ways co-design is the application of the action research paradigm in a design setting. Both the computer experts and the community members are designers on an equal footing and work cooperatively. It is an act of collective creativity.

Co-design is a step beyond the process known as Participatory Design (PD). It is become a process where artefacts are created by building a shared vision, with social learning and mutual understanding between the designer and participants. We use technology probes, actual working systems, to elicit requirements, collaborate with communities as we develop and evaluate an artefact. Actual working systems are mostly needed because techniques like paper prototyping frequently do not work, since our co-designers may have very little familiarity with technology.

Next: Starting out on CBCD

Example of "Community-based Co-design".