The application of co-design in service design: a bibliometric analysis of 2018-2022
Authors: Cao Yue 
Published: June 2023

In recent years, a substantial body of literature has emerged due to the widespread application of Co-design in Service Design Research (hereafter referred to as Co-SDR). However, there is currently no comprehensive literature review on Co-SDR. To further promote the development of service design and Co-design as a tool for innovation, it is crucial to comprehensively summarize and analyse the relevant research, particularly its current state over the past five years. Furthermore, the existing research literature in the field of Co-SDR is extensive, spanning across diverse disciplines and fields of knowledge, and the research content and perspectives are complex. As such, traditional methods of literature review may not be adequate in capturing the current research hotspots and development dynamics. The search strategy of using TS= ((co-design OR collaborative design) AND (service design)) in the Web of Science (WOS) core database was adopted in this study. The three major citation indexes commonly used in the WOS database, namely the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), the Science Citation Index (SCI), and the Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI), were chosen as the search sources. The search spanned from 2018 to 2022 to examine the development dynamics and current status of research in the last five years. To avoid the loss of interdisciplinary literature, the sources were not streamlined. A total of 880 articles were selected and used for further quantitative analysis. To obtain more rigorous and comprehensive data indicators, the study employed VOSviewer, a bibliometric visualization software that uses a scientific bibliometric approach to empirically analyse the retrieved data. Bibliometrics refers to the quantitative analysis of various types of bibliographic data to identify potential patterns and information in the vast amount of bibliographic data available. This approach was first proposed by Pritchard in 1969. The analysis reveals that Co-SDR research output has increased significantly in the past two years. Few countries/regions, institutions, and scholars demonstrate high productivity, and research collaborations tend to be institutionally dominated and fragmented.The keyword clustering analysis shows that Co-SDR research is comprehensive and multidisciplinary, with four primary categories: #1 Healthcare Design, #2 Research Methodology, #3 Participatory Design of Public Services, and #4 Design Assessment. Together, these clusters form the hotspots of Co-SDR research, including service design methods and evaluation, user interaction, experience and co-design processes, reflecting a strong inclusive character and emphasising "user-centredness."The reference co-citation network analysis reveals that Co-SDR research is relatively mature, and the field has produced a body of classic literature. The research methodology is primarily a user-centred participatory approach, using specific quantitative evaluation metrics for service design, with the aim of improving services through co-design. Research theories include value co-creation, experience-based co-design, technical co-design, and planning studies, which have played an essential role in driving the development of subsequent research on Co-SDR.