Experience-based Co-design and Healthcare Improvement: Realizing Participatory Design in the Public Sector

Abstract

Over the last decade, growing attention has been paid to the potential value of design theory and practice in improving public services. Experience-based Co-design (EBCD) is a participatory research approach that draws upon design tools and ways of thinking in order to bring healthcare staff and patients together to improve the quality of care. The co-design process that is integral to EBCD is powerful but also challenging, as it requires both staff and patients to renegotiate their roles and expectations as part of a reconfiguration of the relationships of power between citizens and public services. In this paper, we reflect upon the implementation and adaptation of EBCD in a variety of projects and on the challenges of co-design work within healthcare settings. Our discussion aims to contribute to the growing field of service design and to encourage further research into how co-design processes shape—and are shaped by—the power relations that characterize contemporary public services.