Design in the anthropocene, broadening human centred design
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
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Date
2021
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Master's Programme in Creative Sustainability
Language
en
Pages
72+13
Series
Abstract
Service design innovations have the potential to contribute to systemic change towards some of the most pressing problems of modern society such as climate mitigation and equitable integration of the disadvantaged sections of the society. Although there are many theories and frameworks guiding the transition towards environmental and social sustainability, implementing them into practice could be challenging. To understand these challenges, I am reflecting on three service design projects done as part of the academic curriculum in 2020. By reflecting on my learning experiences, I intend to translate my learnings to other creative practitioners to broaden the current human-centred paradigm of problem-solving towards a wider lens of systems thinking towards the collective good. After mapping out three milestones of the projects — project briefing, reframing, intervention point, I indulged my teammates and experts to share their perspectives on the role of designers to reframe and intervene the wicked challenges towards systemic innovation. Through this process, four takeaways were generated. First, it was observed that there were benefits in terms of clarifying the semantics of concepts and terms, exploring hidden assumptions, and building a unified meaning of the context. Second, the need for systems mapping before stakeholder mapping is identified. Third, emphasis is laid on the underpinning role of service designers as visionaries of the project who propose the scope of sustainability in the form of manageable and strategic goals. Lastly, accentuating the culture of monitoring the impact of the outcome generated. As a result of this study, a list of recommended questions is generated that could be pondered upon at different stages of the design process starting from project briefing to reframing to intervention to outcome delivery. The recommended questions are conceptualised to help service designers, especially entry-level designers who might get weighed down by practical tasks such as making visuals and conducting workshops to reorient their role in the team as strategic thinkers and visionaries towards solving complex problems. The set of recommendations could also be used to probe their teammates to keep the bigger picture in mind.Description
Supervisor
Solsona, NuriaThesis advisor
Veselova, EmilijaKeywords
systems thinking, design thinking, sustainability, anthropocene, human centred design, climate crisis