Using the Platform

This page covers the core features of Co-Design Assistant: projects, AI chat, templates, and diagnosis.

Projects

Projects are the central workspace. A project represents a service idea — or an existing service you want to improve — being developed through the 4-phase co-design methodology.

Each project provides:

A dedicated AI chat workspace with thread-based conversations
Templates aligned to each methodology phase
A Knowledge Base that accumulates all structured outputs
Diagnosis tools to assess and re-assess maturity

Creating a Project

From the Home Dashboard, click “Create Project” and fill in:

Field	Description
Project name	A short name identifying your initiative
Domain	Thematic field (water management, agriculture, climate, etc.)
Organisation	Institution leading the project
Expertise	Your main technical competency
Service idea	Short description of the service you are exploring
Description	The problem you are solving and users you target (max 1000 chars)
Objectives	Specific outcomes for this co-design process (at least one)

Tip

Be specific in your service idea — the AI uses this to tailor its guidance.

Roles & Collaboration

Admin — Full control: edit project, manage members, delete project
Member — Participate in chat, view and contribute to templates

The project creator is automatically Admin. To invite collaborators:

Go to Project Settings → Manage Members
Copy the invite code (auto-generated at creation)
Share it — collaborators join via “Join an existing co-design journey”

Pending members must be approved by an admin before gaining access.

Notifications

The bell icon shows project activity: join requests, member changes, and template updates. Notifications are self-filtered (you don’t see your own actions).

AI Chat

The AI chat is the central feature. It’s a methodology-aware assistant that understands the 4-phase process, the 5 evaluation dimensions, and adapts based on what your project has accomplished.

The assistant can:

Guide you through the methodology phase by phase
Suggest and pre-fill templates when structured input is needed
Search your Knowledge Base for accumulated context
Search external sources (CORDIS, web) for domain information

Starting a Conversation

Open your project
Click “New Thread” in the sidebar (optionally select a phase)
Type your message and press Enter

How the AI Works

The AI uses RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) to search the co-design methodology documentation for relevant context. It combines this with conversation history and your project data to generate grounded, methodology-aware responses.

It’s a multi-agent system — a routing agent classifies your intent and dispatches to specialised agents. The list of available agents may evolve as the platform develops:

Agent	What it does
Knowledge Search	Answers grounded in your project context and methodology docs
Stakeholder Agent	Creates and manages stakeholder ID cards
Stakeholder Suggestions	Searches EU CORDIS for relevant organisations
Project Suggestions	Searches CORDIS for relevant EU-funded projects
DIV Framework	Guides through the Data-Information-Value assessment
Ecosystem Map	Maps stakeholder-project relationships
Outcomes Diagram	Synthesises outcomes across time horizons
Sustainability Canvas	Guides through 6 dimensions of sustainability
Web Search	Searches the open web for domain-specific information
Progress & Guidance	Advises on phase status and next steps

Chat Features

Streaming — Responses appear token by token in real-time
Rich content — Markdown, tables, code blocks, Mermaid diagrams
Template triggers — Forms appear inline when the AI determines structured input is needed
Thread memory — Full context within each thread; threads are independent

Tip

One topic per conversation. When you want to change topic, clear the current conversation to start fresh. Be specific in your messages — include domain context and constraints.

Templates & Knowledge Base

Templates are structured forms that capture project knowledge at each phase. They serve as deliverables, AI context, and team alignment tools.

Template Types

Phase 1 — Approaching Users: Stakeholder ID Card, Project ID Card

Phase 2 — Co-Design Diagnosis: Data-Information-Value (DIV)

Phase 3 — Workshop Sessions: User Profile, User Journey, User Needs Expansion, Integration Challenges, User Feedback Form, Facilitator Capture Sheet

Phase 4 — Outcomes: Outcomes Diagram, Sustainability Canvas

Working with Templates

Templates are triggered during AI conversations or created manually from the Knowledge Base:

The AI determines structured input is needed
A form appears inline in the chat
Fill in and submit — saved to the Knowledge Base
The AI uses it as context for future responses

You can also view, edit, and delete templates from the Knowledge Base.

Ecosystem Matrix

A singleton template mapping connections between all stakeholders and projects. Generated automatically once you have at least one Stakeholder or Project ID Card.

Stakeholder Assessment

Each stakeholder is assessed across 8 dimensions (0–5): Policy, Sustainability, Innovation, Scientific, Technical EO, Business, Operational, Collaborative. Visualised as a radar chart.

Knowledge Base

The Knowledge Base stores all completed templates, diagnosis results, and AI-generated summaries. The AI searches it on every query — the more you produce, the better the AI’s responses become.

Phase	Minimum expected content
Phase 1	2+ Stakeholder ID Cards, 1+ Project ID Card
Phase 2	1 DIV Assessment
Phase 3	1+ User Profiles, 1+ User Journey, 1+ Needs Expansion
Phase 4	1 Sustainability Canvas, 1 Outcomes Diagram

Diagnosis

Diagnostic assessments evaluate project readiness across 5 dimensions: Usefulness, Operability, Usability, Sustainability, Scalability.

Flash Diagnosis

A standalone quick assessment (no project needed):

Click “Start Diagnosis” from the Home Dashboard
Answer 12 questions across a 5-page wizard
Get a radar chart, textual synthesis, and recommendations
Optionally convert to a full project

Project Diagnosis

Re-evaluate progress at any time within an active project. Compare results over time to track maturity. Run it at phase transitions to validate readiness.

Understanding Scores

Score 1 — Not addressed; critical gap
Score 2 — Partially considered; needs work
Score 3 — Well addressed; minor improvements possible
Score 4 — Fully mature; strong area