Abstract
Data has emerged as a fundamental driver of value creation within design processes, shaping economic, ethical, and environmental outcomes across societies and socio-technical systems. Existing scholarship often frames value in binary terms of co-creation and co-destruction, overlooking the systemic complexities introduced by interconnected, data-intensive systems. This paper introduces the novel concept of value co-displacement to capture how alternative forms of value emerge and displace others within human–data interaction. Drawing on four design research case studies, we investigate how value and values are co-created, co-displaced, and co-destroyed across interconnected, data-intensive systems. We develop a framework that conceptualises the dynamic interplay of these processes, demonstrating how design actively redistributes value across socio-technical contexts. This contribution advances a more nuanced understanding of value as dynamic, contested, and relational, highlighting the need for more reflexive and responsible approaches to data-driven design.
Keywords
Value co-creation; Value co-displacement; Value co-destruction; Human-data interaction
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1422
Citation
Lee, B., Tallyn, E., Thangaraj, R., Elsden, C., and Speed, C. (2026) Value co-creation, co-displacement, and co-destruction in design: Bridging value and values in human-data interaction, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1422
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Included in
Value co-creation, co-displacement, and co-destruction in design: Bridging value and values in human-data interaction
Data has emerged as a fundamental driver of value creation within design processes, shaping economic, ethical, and environmental outcomes across societies and socio-technical systems. Existing scholarship often frames value in binary terms of co-creation and co-destruction, overlooking the systemic complexities introduced by interconnected, data-intensive systems. This paper introduces the novel concept of value co-displacement to capture how alternative forms of value emerge and displace others within human–data interaction. Drawing on four design research case studies, we investigate how value and values are co-created, co-displaced, and co-destroyed across interconnected, data-intensive systems. We develop a framework that conceptualises the dynamic interplay of these processes, demonstrating how design actively redistributes value across socio-technical contexts. This contribution advances a more nuanced understanding of value as dynamic, contested, and relational, highlighting the need for more reflexive and responsible approaches to data-driven design.