In this article, the gap between participatory design of services and planning processes is identified. This means that any innovations in service design – whether technological, social, or locality-based – are not fully developed. The authors address the relationship between operational design and strategic planning. The article feeds some of the insights gained from participatory design into debates about collaborative and communicative planning by drawing on two exemplars. One focuses on creating a synergy between designing and planning in transforming neighborhood-based children’s services: the other discusses the design of Web 2.0 for on-line public consultancy for comprehensive planning and for mobile services for disabled people. All require synergies between operational design and strategic planning to support participation in collaborative planning for accessibility in urban spaces. The article shows how the development of design constituencies within various contexts of participatory design provides a vehicle for developing collaborative and communicative planning.