Embracing Remote Data collection Methods (RDCM) for CoDesign

This special issue emerged from our own situated experiences as design researchers and practitioners navigating the methodological and ethical uncertainties of fieldwork disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As co-editors, we felt an urgent need to reconsider long-standing assumptions within codesign, particularly its reliance on face-to-face engagement as a foundation for building trust, empathy, and collaboration. Historically, codesign has drawn heavily from ethnographic and participatory traditions (Ehn Citation2008), focusing on in-situ interactions that allow for first-person observation and immersion in participants’ lived realities (Mattelmäki Citation2008; Mattelmäki, Vaajakallio, and Koskinen Citation2014). Yet, the rapid transition to remote modes of interaction during the pandemic revealed new opportunities and challenges for design research. What initially appeared as constraints, through the process unfolded into opportunities to critically reimagine how codesign research could evolve when shaped by remote data collection methods (RDCM). Our own fieldwork immersed in socially embedded and often technologically constrained contexts raised urgent questions about trust-building, empathy, participation, and representation in digital spaces. We recognised the growing need to document, critique, and share the emerging methodologies, tools, and ethics of conducting codesign research remotely, especially with communities for whom face-to-face interaction had been seen as a prerequisite. This special issue seeks to examine these emergent practices critically, contributing to the evolving methodological possibilities within design research. This special issue comprises two editions; this is the first edition.