Project proximities: A meta review of how design addresses distance in complex collaborations

Abstract

Complex collaborations involving multiple disciplines and stakeholders are seen as necessary in the pursuit of transformative innovation. Yet these 'systemic' science & technology-led projects pose a challenge for knowledge exchange, co-creation and cooperation. Design research teams brought in, often to work on tangible outcomes, are faced with chasms between the understanding of diverse actors. From this problematization of distances in complex collaboration, a new design research practice has emerged: Translational Design Practice (Page & John 2019). This paper builds on this concept through a 'meta' level review of the design research approaches in three European publicly-funded consortium projects to address observed distances by building proximity for i) partners, ii) external stakeholders and iii) wider audiences. Translational Design Practice is repositioned as an expanded, transferrable practice which can address the challenges of complex collaborations and therefore support transformative innovation, and I propose, beyond a technology-first approach.