Design’s great weakness is in its own hubris; can we test Design’s legitimacy in sceptical territory? Recent co-design initiatives demonstrate successful healthcare innovation and improvement without the need for Designers, potentially wrong-footing Design. Through case studies, Macdonald explores Design’s research value in the healthcare domain, where the RCT is regarded as the gold standard for scientific evidence. Design’s agency is also discussed in eliciting different kinds of evidence from stakeholders through ‘building into being’ by iterative prototyping, providing stakeholders with tangible new means to think with and experience how different and better things could be. Design’s shortcomings are also addressed.

• https://en.muthesius-kunsthochschule.de/...