Nostalgia and co-creation

Abstract

The paper proposes a creative research strategy combining co-creation and follow-up interviews to operationalise nostalgia effectively. The author suggests that employing co-creation to gain an in-depth structured understanding of the users' thinking early in the design process can drive meaningful and value-driven innovation. To establish this methodological recommendation, the author employed an example of Mumbai's street foods as a cultural artefact and examined consumption, production, and distribution practices by comparing the cities of Mumbai, India, and Phoenix, US. A rigorous qualitative analysis and overall research strategy and approach emphasise the significance of focusing on the cultural networks of an artefact in design research. The research concludes that co-creation is a powerful technique to explore difficult-to-observe concepts like trust, nostalgia, and social anxiety. It can deliver impactful insights to build user-centric experiences, products, and services when implemented well.