Cara Broadley

Co-design at a Distance: Context, Participation, and Ownership in Geographically Distributed Design Processes

Abstract This paper aims to understand how effective co-design activities can be carried out with remote and rural communities. Taking a combined ethnographic and participatory approach in our project situated in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, we discuss two iterative phases of scoping, idea-generating, and prototyping and refining. Throughout these accounts we reflect on how creative design methods enhanced shared understandings of local contextual issues; drove us to identify people and resources to enrich the participatory design process; and strengthened their ownership over the project. Building on this we propose a series of recommendations for design researchers to stimulate engagement with communities from remote and rural geographies, support their participation in activities that aim to understand past challenges and successes, and enable them to contribute to the design and development of new outcomes through sustained collaboration.

Materiality Matters: Exploring the use of design tools in innovation workshops with the craft and creative sector in the Northern Isles of Scotland

Abstract This paper presents initial reflections regarding the use of bespoke design tools within a series of innovation workshops carried out with practitioners and stakeholders active in the craft and creative industry sector in the Scottish Islands of Orkney and Shetland. We argue that by emphasising such bespoke material tools located in and inspired by the local landscape, history and culture, we encouraged engagement, provided space for innovation and enabled creative collectives in their goal of enhancing and sustaining the creative economy in rural geographies.