Design facilitation in professional practice

Wenqi Zheng's PhD Dissertation

Active project
Participants: Professional designers and other professionals engaged in design facilitation

PhD candidate Wenqi Zheng's PhD dissertation is a qualitative study to understand how professionals or professional designers facilitate co-design in the industry. Based on this specific question, additional sub-questions include: 1) What are the required competencies for design facilitators? 2) How do facilitation styles or approaches influence creativity, strategy, and commitment? 3) How does facilitation influence the agency of stakeholders? and 4) How does design education prepare designers for facilitation? These questions are essential for the design and delivery of future collaborative projects between industry and academia.

Methods:

  • In-depth interviews
  • Case study
  • Quantitative content analysis

Outcomes:

  • Zheng, W., Mejía, G. M. & Henriksen, D. (working paper). Directing, cooperating, and suggesting in co-design: design facilitation processes, styles, and competencies.