System Thinking in design

Through this first contact with System Thinking (ST) theory, I could realize the relations and importance that it has to the design methodology, especially when dealing with sustainability issues.

                Well, let’s go by parts: First, what does ST has do with design? The design process’ outcome (product or service) that I’ll call “result” here, will interact with outside factors, for example, an user, a place, and so on, therefore, a system. It means that this result has to fit in that specific system, it must be acceptable by its different parts and interact with them as good as possible. Therefore, by using ST during the design process we can identify the System where the result will act and which relation it will have within the different parts of that specific system. And by taking this approach, we can improve the design process, making it more conscious about the effect that it will make in a certain system. This can also work to make designers act in a more responsible way in terms of the environmental and social outcomes of their works.

                System thinking is especially important when dealing with sustainability issues through design, because these issues often called “wicked problems”, are multifaceted, what demands a more holistic approach and therefore, also more complex solutions, that can tackle the problem through its most different “sides”.  In this case ST and, especially System Inquiry approach is very useful to understand the entire range and complexity of a specific problem which a designer want’s to tackle.  

               

                What I also understood from the 1^st and 2^nd cluster of articles is that, in most of the times, a “system” is not something pre-defined, but, on the other way, it is defined by the person who is approaching it. It means that, as every system is somehow related and connected with other systems and, as each one is made of subsystems, the “size” of it varies according to the level of “zoom” that you use and which of its external relations you are taking in account. This “view” of the system is defined by the type of result that you want to achieve: by the scope and the range of information and complexity that the working group can deal with.