Key Factors for Successful Co-Design with People with Cognitive Impairments

People with cognitive impairments can actively shape digital applications when their lived experiences are included from the very beginning. In collaboration with the TRANSfair Foundation, we conducted participatory workshops with employees to identify requirements for a digital support tool in everyday working life. Our experience shows that true digital participation starts with the requirements-gathering process.

For individuals with cognitive impairments, successful integration into everyday working life often presents considerable challenges. Although organizational processes may be clearly defined, they are not always easily comprehensible or accessible to this group. As a result, employees may be uncertain about subsequent task steps or whether their work has been carried out correctly. Within a collaborative project with the TRANSfair Foundation, funded by the Humane Digital Transformation programme, we developed a conceptual design for a digital support application. TRANSfair provides adapted workplaces for individuals facing particular challenges—primarily related to mental health—by offering structured daily routines and opportunities for social participation. The application is intended to support employees in managing work-related tasks with greater independence and confidence. The project initially focused on employees working in a production kitchen. In this article, we present the central findings of the project and derive practical recommendations for the planning and implementation of co-design workshops with this target group.

Aligning Organisational Objectives and User Needs

The TRANSfair Foundation supports people with disabilities in gaining and maintaining meaningful participation in working life. In the production kitchen, employees with and without cognitive impairments work collaboratively to prepare and deliver meals to a range of customers in the Thun region. Daily operations comprise numerous interconnected tasks, including preparation, cooking, and the verification of correctly assembled orders. Although the daily workflow is clearly structured, employees with cognitive impairments often experience difficulties in following these processes. Uncertainty frequently arises regarding subsequent task steps, task completeness, and the correctness of task execution. The objective of this project was to develop a conceptual framework for a digital support tool, the TRANSfair app. The application is intended to provide employees in the production kitchen—and in other work contexts—with clear and accessible information, enabling them to complete their tasks more reliably, independently, and with reduced uncertainty.

The co-design approach

Rather than limiting the process to verbal discussions of user needs, the project adopted a participatory approach aimed at jointly visualising these needs. To this end, several co-design workshops were conducted with distinct stakeholder groups:

• Employees with cognitive impairments from the production kitchen,
• Group leaders who are responsible for the daily organisation of work,
• Representatives of the management of the TRANSfair Foundation.

The primary objective was to enable meaningful participation while avoiding cognitive overload. In particular, the workshops involving employees with cognitive impairments generated insights that are transferable to comparable co-design contexts:

• Time-limited and structured sessions: Workshop durations were restricted to approximately one hour. Short, clearly structured sessions supported sustained attention and contributed to a relaxed and inclusive atmosphere.
• Visual communication over extended verbal explanations: Visual representations were found to be more accessible than purely verbal descriptions. Flipcharts and simple sketches were therefore used to convey ideas and facilitate discussion.
• Use of plain language: Technical terminology and abstract formulations can impede participation. Instead of questions such as “Where do you see potential for optimisation?”, the workshops employed concrete and accessible prompts, for example, “What is difficult for you at work?” or “When do you feel unsure?”.
• Encouraging creative expression: Participants were provided with paper-based mock-ups that allowed them to sketch ideas or arrange process steps themselves. This tangible form of interaction offered a concrete means of articulating experiences, needs, and ideas.

Integrating requirements

A central step following the co-design workshops involved aligning the needs of employees in the production kitchen with the strategic, organisational, and economic objectives of management. The analysis revealed substantial overlap between these perspectives. Both employees and management articulated similar priorities, including a reduction in errors, clearer workflows, and lower levels of stress in everyday work. By making these shared objectives explicit through visualisation, it was possible to frame requirements in a way that simultaneously supports employee autonomy and confidence while enhancing operational efficiency and work quality. Key requirement dimensions included:

• Clear and structured task lists
• Understandable feedback
• Simplified and transparent processes
• Visual support

Importantly, these design elements do not exclusively benefit employees with cognitive impairments. From an organisational perspective, they also facilitate planning, monitoring, and training processes, thereby contributing to more robust and inclusive work systems overall.

Digital participation begins with design

Actively involving people with cognitive impairments in the design process of digital solutions leads to solutions that effectively address their needs while simultaneously improving organisational processes. Rather than being in tension, individual support requirements and organisational objectives can be mutually reinforcing when addressed through inclusive design practices.

The three steps outlined in this article constitute a transferable framework for projects seeking to strengthen digital participation:

• developing a thorough understanding of the organisational context, goals, and user needs
• treating co-design as a rigorous methodological approach and adapting it to the capabilities of the target group; and,
• deliberately integrating the requirements of individuals and the organisation.

Digital inclusion does not begin with the deployment of a finished application. Instead, it emerges through the ways in which requirements are elicited, design decisions are made, and participation is meaningfully enabled throughout the design process.

Links

Foundation TRANSfair: https://trans-fair.ch