Co-designing wellbeing: exploring the impacts of co-design activity on co-designer’s wellbeing (Advert Ref: RDF18/DES/WARWICK)

In recent decades, Designers have moved from designing for people to designing with people. Designers have adopted new roles that allow the stakeholders of an issue to play a central part in the design of a solution. Co-design is seen as a valuable approach to derive: improved knowledge of users’ needs, higher quality ideas, and, more successful innovations.

When designing for socially-constructed issues, such as health and welfare services, co-designers are often ‘experts by experience’, and can have complex lives. These stakeholders are then asked to take a major role in the design of services; a process that is creative, flattens hierarchies and creates tangible change, but also involves ambiguity, uncertainty and the management of complexity. As a result, being involved in a design process has the opportunity to both positively and negatively impact on a co-designer’s wellbeing.

Recent research has found that acting as a co-designer can have multiple impacts on wellbeing, and that researchers and practitioners need to extend their knowledge of these impacts to maximise benefits and mitigate against risks.

This research looks to explore the impacts that being part of a co-design process has on a co-designer’s wellbeing, and how that could and should be managed in a design context. Initial research questions may include:
• What are the impacts of the co-design activity on co-designers’ wellbeing?
• How does this differ at various stages of the co-design process?
• How do these impacts link to different types of capital and value?
• What is the best way to support co-designers’ wellbeing at different stages of the process?
• What can we learn from other wellbeing support that can be translated and adapted to co-design contexts?

Eligibility and How to Apply:
Please note eligibility requirement:
• Academic excellence of the proposed student i.e. 2:1 (or equivalent GPA from non-UK universities [preference for 1st class honours]); or a Masters (preference for Merit or above); or APEL evidence of substantial practitioner achievement.
• Appropriate IELTS score, if required.
• Applicants cannot apply for this funding if currently engaged in Doctoral study at Northumbria or elsewhere.

For further details of how to apply, entry requirements and the application form, see:
https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/research/postgraduate-research-degrees/how-to-apply/

Please note: Applications that do not include a research proposal of approximately 1,000 words (not a copy of the advert), or that do not include the advert reference (e.g. RDF18/…) will not be considered.

Deadline for applications: 28 January 2018

Start Date: 1 October 2018

Northumbria University takes pride in, and values, the quality and diversity of our staff. We welcome applications from all members of the community. The University holds an Athena SWAN Bronze award in recognition of our commitment to improving employment practices for the advancement of gender equality and is a member of the Euraxess network, which delivers information and support to professional researchers