The terms participatory design, codesign and cocreation describe the practice of collective creativity of designers and people not trained in design, applied across the whole span of a design process (Sanders & Stappers, 2008). It directly involves ‘people in the codesign of artefacts, processes and environments that shape their lives’ (Simonsen & Robertson, 2013, p.2). Though some researchers have indicated subtle differences (for instance Bowen (2009, p.56) suggests codesign has less of a political underpinning and is more product focussed), participatory and codesign are generally used synonymously. 

Participatory design has its roots in Scandinavian workplaces in the 1970s, where a concern about technology (notably computers) devaluing and deskilling workers (Bowen, 2009) led to an attempt to enable workers to have more influence on these systems to promote the quality of working environments. This genesis led to two hallmarks of participatory design:

• stakeholders have a democratic right to be included in its design and will benefit as a result;
• including stakeholders in design activities results in better technical systems (for example more efficient, more usable, more profitable).

In turn, this approach should produce ‘happier’ (empowered, enabled, fulfilled) stakeholders and better products/productivity.

(Bowen, 2009, p. 53).

There was a parallel participatory design developing at the same time as in Scandinavia (Sanders & Stappers, 2008; Kerridge, 2015) via the Design Research Society in the UK, who in 1971 held a conference called Design Participation. Contributors came from the fields of economics, design, architecture, planning, building science, design research, and mechanical engineering, and in the proceedings, Nigel Cross stated:

…professional designers in every field have failed in their assumed responsibility to predict and to design-out the adverse effects of their projects. These harmful side effects can no longer be tolerated and regarded as inevitable if we are to survive the future … There is certainly a need for new approaches to design if we are to arrest the escalating problems of the man-made world and citizen participation in decision making could possibly provide a necessary reorientation. Hence this conference theme of ‘user participation in design’.

(Cross, 1972 in Sanders & Stappers, 2008, p.7)

Participatory design differentiates itself from other traditions by seeking ‘genuine participation’ (Kensing & Greenbaum, 2012, p.27), placing less value on techniques such as interviews or focus groups, which can be construed as one-way approaches.

In addition, participatory design has been seen as a mechanism for disrupting existing power structures (Sanders & Stappers, 2008, p.9) because power needs to be relinquished by companies or institutions as publics (users, stakeholders, customers) are given a genuine say. Sanders & Stappers (2008, p.9) state that this makes ‘participatory thinking…antithetical to consumerism’.