PROUD Local Design Challenges

The PROUD project aims to demonstrate the value of user-led co-design processes by responding to three design challenges to create new products, processes or spaces. With a number of local challenges to choose from, the team felt it was important to define clear challenge selection criteria; a set of core values to assess potential projects against to ensure each project is a genuine opportunity for a co-design intervention.

Projects will be judged on their potential to act as a test bed and generate data for new knowledge exchange mechanisms – so the participants must be willing to engage in new approaches and process and collaborate with design specialists. It is essential that projects must actively engage participants across communities. We want to involve public authorities, academics, designers, citizens and SMEs to demonstrate the value of a user-led co-design approach.

Each design challenge must have the potential to lead to real and lasting change for the participants. The overall aim is to achieve that co-design is taken up by local authorities and business in the future to solve societies complex challenges.