Project Spectrum: evoking, focusing and demanding action.

Co-design is sometimes limited to a study of stakeholder involvement in different stages of the design process, or the way in which designers (and others) work together in different types of settings. We argue that such preoccupations are limiting. Rather, we propose that a wider perspective should be taken to describing and understanding the value of design, one which, on the one hand, takes a realistic view of the short term contributions of some activities, but on the other hand emphasises the medium- and long-term intangible contributions to communities of practice and societal needs such projects make. A model is presented and explained using the outcomes from Project Spectrum—concerned with the design of a tailorable, interactive space for children with an autistic spectrum disorder.