Designing for wellbeing

4
Co-design with
the public sector
Kirsikka Vaajakallio & Tuuli Mattelmäki
Co-design starts with the assumption that people
should have a voice regarding the public services
that influence their lives – either directly, when they
use the service, or indirectly through the wellbeing
of the community and society at large. Co-design is
driven by the iterative reframing of problems, and
the exploration of alternatives through dialogues,
visualisations and prototypes that are created as collaborations
between the stakeholders. This chapter
addresses the question of how design, its processes,
tools and mindset can be applied in collaboration
with public organisations, which are not used to
experimenting and continuously reframing the problem.
People working in the public sector are often
unfamiliar with design’s explorative approach and
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