Open Practices: lessons from co-design of public services for behaviour change

Abstract

This paper explores what the distinctive value of design may be in a policy context. The paper broadly supports the contention by Smith and Otto (2014) that design offers a “distinct way of knowing that incorporates both analysing and doing in the process of constructing knowledge”. The paper will also outline potential limitations of the direct translating of design practice and methods into a policy context. To achieve this, the paper uses insights gained from an on-going design research project, Open Practices, which aims to co-design services and policy interventions to enable sustainable behaviour change. In this case, co-design, as a method and context for policy design, interweaves alternative ideas and perspectives (e.g. interdisciplinary knowledge, desirable visions of future behaviours), new policy practices (e.g. co-creation, policy labs, practical experiments, ethnographic study) and new social relations (e.g. new networks and actors).