Intermediate Codesigning in Transitions Governance: Catalysing and Channelling Participant Action

Design research is increasingly used in catalysing society-wide changes in futuring and in transition process-related deliberations. These processes underscore the role of 'intermediate designs' - the means, tools, and procedures that help participants to reach meaningful outcomes. Whilst intermediate designs are well recognized in collaborative design, the design of intermediate designs is a hitherto little studied area. To orient design researchers towards it, we analyse a codesign process of developing a transition pathway formation tool, and characterize its specific features and design considerations. The main finding is the continuous effort by designers towards the 'channelling of participant action' through design choices so that the outcomes and processual integrity of the collaborative envisioning is ensured while avoiding 'designing the participations', which would hamper participants' freedom to deliberate, express, create, and take ownership of the process and its results.