How might we evaluate co-design? A literature review on existing practices
Zixuan Wang, Tingting Jiang, Jiawen Huang, Yixuan Tai, Paola Trapani
Abstract
Background: In recent years, co-design has seen exponential adoption in response to complex socio-technical transitions. However, the appraisal around co-design still lacks development, making its quality, effect, and value ambiguous. Aim: This study aims to encourage more research and practice in co-design evaluation by summarizing existing attempts. Method: We first conducted an integrative literature review in Scopus by analyzing and comparing existing methods used for assessing co-design. Then we iteratively coded the reviewed articles in ATLAS.ti following grounded theory. Through critical reflection and synthesis of the codes, we formed higher-level themes describing different aspects of co-design assessment. Based on these, we proposed an evaluation framework with five steps guiding the practice. Result: An overview of the methods, values, challenges, and suggestions for co-design assessment has been presented, and an assessment framework is proposed to support applications in this area.