Abstract

In general, the design of solutions for the public sector requires a sensitive knowledge of the social and cultural dynamics of citizens. Consequently, the challenge is adapting the diverse tools and design processes to specific realities of each culture. In Chile, due to its history in the modernization of public services, the complexity presents itself when the needs of citizens and institutions are taken into account to determine the precise actions that would reduce the resistance to change. In Chile many of the political decisions - post military-dictatorship (1973-1990) - were aimed at strengthening a weakened public sector and an invisible civil society. During the first government of Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010), numerous public institutions were strengthened, however, the citizens declare themselves unsatisfied because these services do not attend to their needs or deliver pertinent solutions to their problems. Aware of the low satisfaction of citizens, in 2013 the Public Innovation Laboratory (LIP) was created with the purpose of contributing to innovate in the public sector. The team brings together researchers, professionals and students who come from different areas of knowledge, they work from a project-grounded research, reflecting on the action and reinterpreting outside the action. LIP has developed projects for the elderly, public spaces, transportation, culture, building, sustainability and health, among others. In this chapter a selection of two projects developed by LIP illustrate design’s complexity in cases where the impact of solutions is or may be at a national level. This chapter seeks to: 1) reflect on the complexity this transformation from citizen-individual to citizen-community and how it affects design, and 2) raise the contribution of co-creation methodologies as a transformation tool of the individual and activation of the communities.