Foregrounding data in co-design – An exploration of how data may become an object of design

•Data can be made an object of design in collaborative design workshops.•Forgrounding data in collaborative design support domain experts who are not IT professionals to work creatively with data.•The physical character of a data notation is important.•Use of multiple data notations are helpful in collaborative design workshops.•Participatory design is a useful approach for foregrounding data.