Co-design: the collaborative approach to creating DestinE applications

Earth observation (EO) data products are a powerful tool for tackling climate and environmental challenges. However, the wide range of users – from scientists to policy-makers to commercial customers – presents challenges when creating services that meet everyone’s needs. For example, while environmental agencies may use EO data to track changes over decades, other users like private companies might seek short-term insights to create commercial products. Co-designCoordinated definition and implementation of a DestinE techn More can help solve this by bringing users and developers together. DestinE is developing an approach to ensure that EO-based services on the platform fully work for their users.

The co-design methodology is a participatory way of designing solutions. It treats community members as equal collaborators in the process, empowering users of a product to join the creation process and share input they consider important, including insights developers might not anticipate.

However, traditional co-design methods do not always work for EO-based data and services. Users are often unaware of the full potential of EO, while EO data providers may not fully understand who the potential users could be. This gap – called ‘grand distance’ – between providers and potential users created the need for a specialised co-design approach specifically tailored to DestinE.

Co-design and DestinE

In the e-shape project, an H2020 initiative that ran from 2019 to 2023, researchers developed a co-design methodology tailored to EO’s unique features. This methodology was tested in 37 pilot services. These addressed a variety of topics including agriculture, health and climate change.

Learning from the e-shape project, ESA, responsible for implementing the DestinE platform, funded a research team from MINES Paris PSL to adapt this co-design approach to DestinE.

The team is building a so-called supersite in Marseille, with the city council as a DestinE user. In the context of co-design, a supersite is a place where a selection of data is processed to address specific needs and made available through DestinE. Researchers are using the co-design methodology to identify users’ needs and explore how EO application developers should collaborate with them to create functional services.

Marseille’s city council provides a particularly useful example of a DestinE end-user, as the city faces urgent challenges from climate change and environmental issues and is seeking EO services to tackle them.

DestinE User eXchange and co-design

To make sure the DestinE user community understands the co-design methodology in more detail, the DestinE team held an interactive workshop during the 3rd User eXchange in October 2024. The session introduced attendees to the DestinE co-design toolkit and methodology and gave registered service providers a chance to collaborate closely with platform developers, try out the toolkit and adapt co-design practices to their own work.

“We want DestinE to be a valuable tool for users, ensuring that the services and applications we create truly meet their needs,” said DestinE Earth Science Model Engineer Franka Kunz. “The co-design methodology helps us achieve this by bridging the gap between users and developers and involving users in the creation process.”

Those who missed the workshop can watch the recording to learn how this methodology strengthens DestinE’s capabilities. Additionally, a co-design toolkit will be available for everyone to use on DestinE’s website. This will be a free resource that service providers can use to build user-friendly services. If you are a user or service provider and have questions about the co-design methodology, feel free to contact the DestinE team by filling out this form.